EARLY 

RHODE   ISLAND 

HOUSES 


I  SHAM 

AND 
BROWN 


-fV-V 


WM- 


EARLY  RHODE  ISLAND  HOUSES 


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Early 
Rhode  Island  Houses 


HISTORICAL  AND  ARCHITECTURAL  STUDY 


NORMAN   M.   ISHAM,   A.  M. 

INSTRUCTOR   IN   ARCHITECTURE,   BROWN   UNIVERSITY 

ALBERT   F.   BROWN 

ARCHITECT 


Providence,  R.  I. 

PRESTON    &    ROUNDS 

1895 


M^  7Z3S 


Copyright,  1895 
by    preston   &    rounds 


COMPOSITION    AND   I'KESS-WORK    liV    E.  L.  FREEMAN   &   SON,  PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. 


PLATES    MADE    BY    RHODE    ISLAND    PHOTO-ENGRAVING   CO.,    PROVIDENCE,  R. 


TO 


William  Carpenter,  John  Smith  the   Mason 


AND    the    rest    of    THE 


early  craftsmen  of  Rhode  Island 


iW243'?52 


PREFACE 


HE  present  book  is  the  result  of  much  observation  and 
study  of  the  early  colonial  work  in  Rhode  Island.  Yet 
it  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  exhausted  even  so  small 
a  subject  as  this  would  seem  to  be.  Newport  and  the  Narragan- 
sett  country  each  deserve  a  book  by  themselves,  and  each  needs 
more  complete  exploration  than  we  have  been  able  so  far  to  give 
them.  As  far  as  the  book  goes,  however,  we  claim  for  it  consid- 
erable accuracy,  and  whatever  may  be  the  reader's  opinion  of  the 
theories  put  forth  in  the  text,  he  may  rest  assured  that  the  draw- 
ings are  veritable  historical  data.  Every  plan,  elevation  and  section 
is  based  upon  measurements  of  the  house  it  illustrates ;  and  the 
perspectives  are  made — two  from  pencil  sketches  made  on  the 
spot,  the  rest  of  the  number  from   photographs. 

We  have  thus  personally  examined,  sometimes  from  garret  to 
cellar,  every  house  described  in  the  text,  and  our  thanks  are  most 
heartily  tendered  to  the  courteous  owners  and  occupants  who  al- 
lowed us  to  explore,  measure  and  sketch  at  our  leisure,  and  often 
shared  our  enthusiasm.  Every  house  in  the  catalogue  in  Chapter 
IX  has  also  been  seen  or  examined  either  by  ourselves  or  by  Mr. 
Edward  Field,  Record  Commissioner  of  the  city  of  Providence,  who 
has  worked  much  with  us  and  to  whom  our  thanks  are  due,  not 
only  for  his   exploration   but   for  the   keenness   with   which   he   has 


6  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

run  to  earth  the  documentary  evidence  for  the  dates  of  the  Prov- 
idence houses.  These  dates  we  have  merely  stated,  leaving  the 
authorities  upon  which  they  are  based  for  him  to  pubHsh. 

In  the  cases  of  the  Newport  and  Narragansett  houses  we  have 
no  documentary  evidence  to  show  for  the  dates.  Both  the  New- 
port and  North  Kingstown '  records  are  in  such  a  condition  that 
little  can  be  learned  from  them.  We  have  given  conjectural  dates 
for  all  these  houses  based  upon  the  Providence  work  and  upon  the 
date  of  the  Smith  house,  which  we  believe  to  be   1678-80. 

Perhaps  a  word  may  be  necessary  on  the  meaning  of  some 
geographical  names  which  are  now  much  narrower  than  they  were 
two  hundred  years  ago.  Providence  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is 
used  in  this  book  means  the  whole  northern  part  of  the  State, 
practically  the  present  Providence'  county  west  of  the  Seekonk  and 
Blackstone  rivers.  Warwick  included  the  present  town  of  Coven- 
try ;  it  was  really  the  strip  of  land  between  Warwick  and  Gaspee 
points,  running  twenty  miles  inland.  The  territory  which  now 
forms  the  towns  of  Cumberland  —  the  old  Attleborough  Gore  — 
East  Providence,  Warren,  Bristol,  Tiverton  and  Little  Compton, 
was  part  of  the  Plymouth  Colony. 

We  hope  that  this  work  will  be  a  help  to  the  future  historians 
of  New  England  and  that  it  will  promote  the  collection  of  scien- 
tific data  about  the  oldest  houses  in  the  original  New  England 
colonies,  so  that  the  vague  descriptions  of  too  many  of  our  town 
histories  may  be  supplemented  by  accurate  measured  drawings. 

'  If  we  include  the  "  Pawtuxet  Purchase." 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I. 


Introductory 


CHAPTER   II. 
The  Houses  of  the  Earliest  Period,   1636-1675  -         -         .         -         ig 

1.  The  Roger  Mowry  House,  Providence. 

2.  The  Arthur  Fenner  House,  Cranston. 

CHAPTER   HI. 

The   Houses  of  the  Second  Period,   1671^-1700     -----         30 


The  Thomas  Fenner  House,  Cranston. 
The  Edward  Manton  House,  Manton. 
The  Thomas  Field   House,  Field's  Point. 
The  Eleazer  Whipple   House,  Lime  Rock. 
The  Eleazer  ArnoUl  House,  Moshassuck. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
The  Houses  of  the  Third  Period,   i 700-1 735       -----         4^ 

1.  The  Epenetus  Olney  House,  North  Providence. 

2.  The  Benjamin   Waterman  House,  Johnston. 

3.  The  John  Crawford   House,  Providence. 

4.  The  James  Greene  House,   Buttonwoods. 


8  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Newport 55 

CHAPTER   VI. 
Narragansett    - 6i 

CHAPTER   VH. 
Construction      -----------         -68 

1.  Stone-work  and  Brick-work. 

2.  The  Frame. 

CHAPTER   Vni. 
Relation  of  Colonial  Architecture  to  English  Work    -         -         -         83 

CHAPTER   IX. 
List  of  Old  Rhode  Island  Houses 90 

Index  of  Names  and  Places   ---- 98 


LIST     OF     PLATES. 


LIST  OF  PLATES. 


Front 

ispie 

Tailp 

ece 

a 

Plate 

I. 

(( 

2. 

k( 

3- 

(( 

4- 

a 

5- 

a 

6. 

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7- 

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8. 

(( 

9- 

a 

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11 

1 1. 

i  1. 

12. 

11 

13- 

bi 

14. 

a 

15- 

a 

16. 

it 

17- 

(( 

18. 

11 

19. 

( ( 

20. 

(( 

21. 

a 

22. 

ii 

23- 

(( 

24. 

a 

25- 

a 

26. 

ti 

27. 

ece.     Thomas  Fenner  House. 

Gravestone  of  one  of  the  Fenners 
East  Room,  Smith   House 
Development  of  the  Rhode  Island  Plan 
Map  of  Seventeenth  Century  Providence 
Roger  Mowrv  House  .         -         - 


Arthur  Fenner  House 


Thomas  Fenner  House 


Edward  Manton   House 


a  li 


Thomas  Field  House 


((  n 


Eleazer  Whipple  House 


Page  29 

"     67 


Present  Exterior 

Restored  Plan 

Restored  Section 

Restored  Exterior 

Framing 

Exterior 

Ruins 

Measured  Plan 

Restored   Plan 

First  Story  Plan 

Second  Story  Plan 

Section 

Present  Fireplace 

Ancient  Fireplace  Restored 

Framing 

Restored  Exterior 

Present  Exterior 

Plan 

Section 

Restored  Exterior 

Exterior  in   1894 

Plan 

Section 

Present  Exterior 

Plan 


10 


EARLY     RHODE     ISLAND     HOUSES. 


Plate 

28 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

4' 

42 

43 

44 

45 

46 

47 

48 

49 

50 

51 

52 

53 

54 

55 


50 

57 
58 

59 
60 


Eleazer  Arnold  House 


Epenetus  Olney  House 


Benjamin  Waterman  House 


John  Crawford  House 


James  Greene  House 

.k  ((  4; 

Governor  Henry  Bull  House 
Sueton  Grant  House 

it  ((  a 

Richard  Smith  House 
Phillips  House    -  -  - 

Arthur  Fenner  House 
^  Thomas  Field  House 
'  Benjamin  Waterman   House 
Epenetus  Olney  House 


John  Crawford  House 
Framing  Details  —  Rafters 
"  "  Overhangs 

Map  of  Early  Rhode  Island 


Present  Exterior 

Plan 

Cross  Section 

Longitudinal  Section 

Restored  Exterior 

Present  Exterior   (1894) 

Plan 

Cross  Section 

Longitudinal  Section 

Framing 

Present  Exterior 

First  Story  Plan 

Original  Second  Story 

Section 

East  Elevation 

North  Elevation 

Second  Story  Plan 

Cross  Section 

Longitudinal  Section 

Present  Exterior 

Plan 

Plan 

Plan 

Restored  Exterior 

Plan 

Chimney 

Details 

Details 

Details 

Details  First  Story 

Details  Second  Story 

Details 


In  pocket,  rear  cover 


>       >    J    >       J  -s  > 


w 


EARLY  RHODE  ISLAND  HOUSES. 


CHAPTER   I. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

ARLY  NEW  ENGLAND  was  not  without  poHtical  his- 
tory  of  a  very  active  kind.  Several  different  colonies 
existed  within  its  narrow  territory,  and  as  a  result  of 
the  relations  between  these  colonies  we  find  several  more  or  less 
clearly  marked  schools  of  architecture.  Massachusetts  had  one 
style ;  Connecticut  another,  slightly,  if  any,  different ;  and  Rhode 
Island  a  third,  which  seems  quite  clearly  separated  from  the  other 
two.  With  the  internal  differences  in  the  two  former  schools  we 
have  little  to  do..  In  the  present  limits  of  Rhode  Island  we  find 
a  difference  between  Providence  and  Newport,  and  again  between 
these .  and  the  old  "King's  Province,"  the  "South  County"  of  fa- 
miliar language.  * 

The  causes  of  these  differences  lie,  to  a  great  extent,  as  indi- 
cated above,  in  the  political  history  of  early  Rhode  Island,  which 
was  not  entirely  peaceful.  In  1636  Roger  Williams  purchased  the 
Providence   Plantations.     Gorton,  in    1643,   bought   Shawomet ;   and 


12  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

between  the  two,  in  November,  1642,  John  Greene  had  settled  at 
Occupasnetuxet,  now  Spring  Green.  Of  the  islands  in  Narragan- 
sett  Bay,  Patience  and  Prudence  were  owned  in  partnership  by 
Williams  and  Gov.  Winthrop ;  while  Aquidneck  and  parts  of  the 
others  of  the  lower  group  came  into  possession  of  those  who  settled 
Newport  and  formed  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island.  In  1638,  or  very 
near  it,  Major  Richard  Smith  settled  in  the  Narragansett  country 
at  what  is  now  Wickford.  He  and  others  held  what  was  known  as 
the  Atherton  Purchase,  the  strip  of  coast  northward  to  Gorton's 
southern  line.  West  of  them  was  the  Fones  Purchase  of  about  the 
same  size.  Southward,  still  on  the  east  or  shore  side  of  the  Great 
Swamp,  the  Pettaquamscut  and  other  purchases  continued  the  line 
of  settlement ;  while  pioneers  from  Newport,  landing  at  Westerly, 
spread  gradually  up  the  river  valleys  into  the  region  westward  of 
the  Swamp,  the  present  townships  of  Hopkinton,  Richmond,  and 
the  rest.  The  people  of  the  different  settlements  were  of  different 
characters,  and  these  communities  sometimes  quarrelled  with  each 
other  and  sometimes  fought  fiercely  in  disputes  at  home. 

Now  with  this  state  of  things  within  —  and  the  picture  is  rather 
mildly  drawn  —  must  be  combined  the  greed  and  machinations  of 
Massachusetts  on  the  east  and  of  Connecticut  on  the  west,  the  one 
hating  the  idea  for  which  the  new  colony  stood  as  well  as  desiring 
its  territory,  the  other  not  actively  hostile,  but  anxious  to  extend  its 
jurisdiction  to  the  shore  of  Narragansett  Bay.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  these  two  colonies  fomented  the  controversy  aroused  by 
William  Harris  and  his  claims ;  while  the  eighteen  years  of  Massa- 
chusetts jurisdiction  over  Pawtuxet,  the  Gorton  episode,  and  the 
leaning  of  the  Smiths  toward  Connecticut,  show  that  the  unity  for 
which,  fortunately,  the  greater  minds  in  the  colony  did  not  cease  to 
struggle,  must  often  have  seemed  a  desperate  matter. 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

Since  the  early  history  of  the  colony  was  such  as  we  have  de- 
scribed, we  may  now  perhaps  see  why  there  should  be,  not  only  in 
New  England  but  also  in  the  narrow  limits  of  Rhode  Island,  differ- 
ences in  building  corresponding  to  the  different  political  divisions ; 
why  the  earliest  buildings  of  Providence  find  little  analogy  in  the 
Bay  or  in  Connecticut;  and  why  Newport,  scarcely  thirty  miles  away, 
should  exhibit  small  architectural  affinity,  except  at  the  very  outset, 
with  its  sister  colony.  In  fact,  Newport  work  seems  to  lean  some- 
what toward  the  school  which  prevailed  at  Hartford,  a  fact  hard  to 
account  for  except  through  the  influence  of  trade  along  the  shore 
of  the  Sound.  The  two  types,  Providence  and  Connecticut,  seem 
to  meet  there,  as  also  at  Wickford.  Below  Wickford  in  the  South 
County  the  examples  of  very  early  date  are  wanting,  but  the  older 
houses  are  sometimes  of  the  Connecticut  type,'  sometimes  very  near 
akin  to  the  work  in  Providence. 

The  character  of  the  architecture  of  the  early  colonies  depends, 
also,  very  closely  on  the  early  artisans  and  the  training  they  brought 
with  them  from  the  old  world.  Each  colony  had  its  craftsmen,  and 
only  the  first  log  huts  can  have  been  built  by  the  settlers  them- 
selves. Sawyers  are  mentioned  very  early  in  the  records  of  the  Bay 
Colony,  as  well  as  carpenters,  masons,  brick -layers,  and  thatchers." 
All  these  men  had  learned  their  trades  of  English  or  Dutch  masters 
in  England  or  in  Holland,  and  to  their  apprentices  they  taught  the 
methods  they  had  learned  in  their  youth.  Their  ideas  were  some- 
what limited.  They  were  of  the  humbler  classes,  and  each  followed, 
so  far  as  we  can  judge,  the  style  of  building  which  prevailed  in  the 
district  whence  he  came.      The    early  types    disappear  as   the   old 


'  In  Plate  i,  B  is  the  type  of  house  prevalent  in  Hartford,  while  E  was  the  type  in  Salem. 
'■'Colonial   Records  of  Massachusetts,  Vol.  I.,  p.  74.     See,  also,  Contract  for  building  fort,  in  I'l)-- 
mouth  Records. 


14  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

craftsmen  and  their  immediate  apprentices  die  out,  but  the  three 
original  New  England  Colonies  are  never  the  same  in  their  colonial 
architecture. 

How  much  Dutch  influence  there  was  in  the  early  work  in 
Providence  it  is  hard  to  say.  There  was  much  intercourse  with 
New  Amsterdam,  which  was  apparently  friendly,  and  which  no  doubt 
furnished  a  ready  market  for  furs,  while  its  people  possibly  sold  the 
colonists  tools  and  other  manufactured  articles  which  could  not  be 
bought  in  Boston.  There  were  also  Dutchmen  in  the  town  itself. 
Christopher  Unthank  was  one,  and  the  unhappy  John  Clawson  an- 
other, and  the  latter  was  by  trade  a  carpenter.  In  addition  to  these 
sources  of  influence,  we  may  also  consider  what  Dutch  traditions 
there  may  have  been  in  the  colony  of  Plymouth,  whence  many  of 
our  Providence  settlers  came. 

When  we  look  at  actual  work  as  it  remains  to  us,  we  find  noth- 
ing which  cannot  be  thoroughly  English,  and  due  to  the  English 
training  of  the  original  settlers.  One  method  in  use  in  Providence, 
which  it  seems  to  share  only  to  a  limited  extent  with  the  other 
colonies,  at  least  in  houses,  is  that  of  boarding  vertically.  Even 
this,  which  certainly  was  used  in  the  Low  Countries,  may  be  Eng- 
lish also,  for  it  was  used  at  Hildesheim  in  Germany,  and  hence  was 
not  confined  to  Holland.  Still,  even  if  it  came  from  England,  it 
might  have  been  a  Dutch  importation,  if  we  are  to  credit  those 
industrious  immigrants  with  what  may  have  been  common  to  all 
Mediaeval  Europe. 

The  obscurity  of  early  Rhode  Island  history  is  well  known. 
There  was  no  historian,  not  even  a  diarist  of  any  account,  and  the 
separation  of  church  and  state  deprives  us  of  church  records.  The 
public  records  are  rather  brief  and  fragmentary,  and  are  full  of 
gaps;   and  the  meagreness  of  their  references  to  building  —  for  the 


INTRODUCTORY. 


15 


inventories  do  not  begin  till  comparatively  late  —  makes  it  difficult 
to  gather  from  contemporary  evidence  of  what  kind  were  the  houses 
of  the  earliest  settlers.  When  we  say  of  any  house  now  standing 
that  it  was  built  before  King  Philip's  War,  we  cannot  stand  pre- 
pared to  prove  our  statement  with  documents  signed,  sealed,  and 
witnessed.  Nevertheless  it  is  fairly  well  known  of  what  sort  these 
early  houses  were,  and  we  shall  make  the  First  Period  of  the  three 
into  which  we  intend  to  divide  the  chronology  of  the  subject  extend 
to  1675,  the  date  of  the  Indian  War.  The  Second  Period  extends 
from  [675  to  1700.  The  Third  Period,  the  last  of  our  divisions, 
brings  us  down  to  1725-30,  when  the  old  forms  of  construction 
were  abandoned,  or  rather  were  transformed,  and  the  pre-revolution- 
ary  style  began  —  a  style  more  easily  recognized  as  "Colonial,"  and 
closely  akin  to  that  of  the  great  houses  which  from  1 750  to  the 
end  of  the  century  gave  its  peculiar  architectural  character  to  the 
Atlantic  seaboard. 

These  periods  are  not  so  arbitrary  as  thfey^  look.  The  war  with 
King  Philip  was  one  of  extermination  on  both  sides.  Its  success- 
ful end  marked  a  great  step  in  colonial  progress.  Security  was 
assured ;  the  Indian  question  was  settled  in  Eastern  New  England. 
From  now  on  the  outlying  settlements  in  the  Plantations  grew 
stronger.  Again,  it  was  about  the  beginning  of  the  i8th  century 
that  occurred  the  significant  change  in  the  habits  of  the  good 
towns-people  which  turned  them  from  agriculture  to  sea-traffic  and 
brought  in  the  wealth  and  the  wider  ideas  which,  acting  with  the 
weakening  of  the  old  traditions  under  successive  apprentices,  de- 
stroyed the  almost  medieval  types  of  the  old  craftsmen,  and  sub- 
stituted, not  all  at  once,  of  course,  work  akin  to  the  classic  models 
with  which  Chambers  afterward  made  men  so  familiar. 

The   first  houses   of    Providence,   built    around  the   spring    near 


16  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

where  St.  John's  Church  now  stands,  were  no  doubt  of  logs  halved 
together  at  the  corners,  and  contained  but  one  room  roofed  with 
other  logs,  or  with  bark  or  thatch  on  poles.  The  chimney,  if  there 
was  one  —  for  the  settlement  was  made  in  the  early  summer  when 
cooking  could  be  done  out  of  doors  —  was  probably  also  of  logs,  on 
the  outside  of  the  house,  at  one  end,  and  like  the  house  was  plas- 
tered with  clay.  But  these  huts  were  only  temporary.  The  news 
of  the  founding  of  a  new  settlement  soon  attracted  those  who 
through  tenderness  of  conscience  or  through  contumacious  disposi- 
tion could  no  longer  dwell  with  peace  and  comfort  in  the  Colony 
of  the  Bay.  With  the  immigrants  came  craftsmen,  if  indeed  they 
were  not  among  the  original  few;  and  perhaps  as  winter  came  on 
the  new  plantation  of  Providence  began  to  have  more  substantial 
dwellings,  akin  to  what  Roger  Williams  called  an  "English  house.'" 
The  houses  which  succeeded  log  huts  did  not  differ  from  them 
in  plan.  They  contained  only  a  single  room,"  the  "  Fire  Room," 
one  end  of  which  was  almost  entirely  taken  up  by  a  huge  stone 
chimney  with  its  cavernous  fireplace.'  Beside  the  fireplace,  in  the 
corner  of  the  room  was  the  staircase  —  little,  if  anything,  better  than 
a  ladder — which  led  to  the  "chamber"  above;  for  few  of  these 
houses  were  more  than  a  story  and  a  half  high.  A  glance  at 
Plate  I,  A  will  show  this  arrangement,  and  also  will  give,  in  B, 
the  plan  in  vogue  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  and,  in  E,  that 
common  in  Salem.  It  will  be  noticed  that  a  Rhode  Island  plan  is 
just  the  half  of  one  of  those  in  vogue  among  our  early  neighbors 
of  Connecticut,  and  so  it  remained  until  nearly  1730.     Nor  did  this 


iR.  I.  Hist.  Coll.,  Vol.  IIL,  p.  166. 

'  Providence  fireplaces  are  larger  than  those  of  Connecticut. 

^H.  C.  Dorr,  Planting  and  Growth  of  Providence,  p.  24.     We  reached  our  conclusion,  however, 
before  seeing  his  work. 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

earlier  form,  which  we  have  just  described,  undergo,  as  far  as  can 
be  seen,  any  modifications  except  the  lean-to,  before  King  Philip's 
War.  More  than  that,  it  lived  on  for  some  years  side  by  side  with 
a  later  form,  which  we  shall  next  describe. 

After  the  close  of  the  Indian  War  some  of  the  burned  houses 
were  rebuilt  on  the  same  primitive  lines,  but  in  a  few  years  the 
increased  sense  of  security  and  the  greater  wealth  which  now  pre- 
vailed brought  about  a  change.  The  older  houses  were  added  to, 
partly  by  the  lean-to,  partly  by  lengthening  at  the  end  away  from 
the  chimney.  This  probably  took  place  very  early,  and  was  not 
confined  to  any  one  time.  But  the  main  characteristic  of  the  sec- 
ond period  is  the  construction,  under  one  roof,  with  a  lean-to  and 
with  or  without  additions  at  the  end  away  from  the  chimney,  of 
houses  whose  plan  is  given  at  C,  Plate  i  ;  and  the  difference  which 
marks  the  third  period,  which  sometimes  contains  houses  of  the 
plan  of  the  first,  but  mostly  of  the  second,  is  that  the  houses  are 
often  of  two  full  stories  and  the  chimneys  are  partly  or  wholly  of 
brick. 

Beyond  the  third  period,  or  beyond  1725,  the  transition  is  rapid, 
but  it  takes  two  directions.  From  C,  which  with  brick  chimney  is 
practically  the  plan  of  the  old  Crawford  house  at  the  corner  of 
North  Main  and  Mill  streets,  the  step  is  easy  to  the  plan  at  D, 
which  is  that  of  the  Brown  house,  all  of  brick,  on  the  grounds  of 
Butler  Hospital.  It  is  also  a  very  common  disposition  of  an  end- 
chimney,  when  an  old  house  has  been  lengthened,  as  mentioned 
above,  at  the  end  opposite  the  original  chimney.  But  this  form 
seems  never  to  have  been  developed  further.  Another,  and  a  more 
convenient,  supplanted  it,  and  it  was  only  after  many  years  that  it 
reappears,  and  then  it  does  not  have  its  original  form ;  it  is  rather 
a  fresh  discovery. 


18  •  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

In  F,  Plate  i,  we  have  this  supplanting  form.  The  chimney  is 
now  in  the  middle  or  nearly  so,  as  for  a  time  at  least  the  original 
single  room  is  larger  than  the  room  which  was  added  at  R.  In 
many  old  houses,  notably  in  the  Tillinghast  house  on  South  Main 
street,  built  probably  about  1730,  the  "great  room,"  the  descendant 
of  the  single  room  in  the  ancient  houses,  as  they  were  the  descend- 
ants of  the  old  English  "  hall,"  has  two  windows,  while  that  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  chimney  has  but  one.  The  staircase,  it  will  be 
noted,  has  not  changed  its  place  —  it  is  still  next  to  the  chimney  in 
the  same  relation  to  the  old  room  as  before  ;  and  the  door,  which 
in  some  old  houses  opened  upon  the  stairs,  has  been  brought  na- 
turally into  the  centre  of  the  new  front,  without  changing  its  old 
location. 

Soon  the  two  rooms  became  equal,  with  the  chimney  still  in 
the  centre,  and  now  nothing  except  detail  distinguishes  the  Rhode 
Island  house  from  those  of  the  neighboring  colonies.  Next,  each 
room  had  its  chimney  {G,  Plate  i)  and  the  hall  ran  through  the 
house.  Finally,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  each  of  the  four  rooms  has  its  fireplace 
( H,  Plate   I )   and  these  are  in  the  wall  again. 

This  broad  classification  generalizes  the  architectural  history  of 
Rhode  Island.  With  its  later  forms  this  essay  has  nothing  to  do, 
except  incidentally.  We  shall  now  go  back  and  take  up  the  earli- 
est houses,  giving  in  each  period  a  particular  account  of  each  note- 
worthy structure.  This  done,  we  shall  study  carefully  the  materials, 
the  methods  of  framing  and  other  details  of  construction.  In  clos- 
ing, we  shall  attempt  to  trace  the  relation  of  the  early  colonial 
craftsmen  to  the  work  in  Old  Ens^land. 


CHAPTER    II. 


THE   HOUSES   OF  THE   EARLIEST   PERIOD,    1636-1675. 


HERE  are  three  sources  of  evidence  as  to  these  oldest 
houses.  We  have  certain  traditions  handed  down,  some- 
times in  famihes,  sometimes  from  one  owner  of  the  prop- 
erty to  another.  We  have  also  a  meagre  amount  of  documentary 
evidence,  partly  contemporary,  partly  later  in  date,  but  of  such  a 
character  that  inferences  can  be  drawn  from  it  with  good  critical 
results ;  and  finally,  the  surest  source  of  all,  we  have  the  houses 
themselves,  both  those  of  this  period  and  those  of  the  next  —  for 
here,  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  documents,  the  examination  and 
comparison  of  the  later  houses  are  necessary  in  the  study  of  the 
scanty  remains  of  the  earlier  work. 

Tradition  claims  that  there  were  several  houses  which  survived 
the  Indian  attack,  whatever  it  was,  of  March,  1676.  Tradition,  of 
course,  must  be  critically  examined,  and,  even  if  it  cannot  be  dis- 
proved, must  be  given  only  as  tradition  to  which  the  reader  must 
be  allowed  to  give  his  own  weight.  It  is  curious  to  observe,  how- 
ever, that  one  of  the  two  points  mainly  urged  against  the  statement 
that  any  house  now  exists  in  Providence  built  before  King  Philip's 
War,   is  also   a   tradition  —  one   most  tenaciously  clung  to    by  the 


20  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

older  writers,  that  Providence  was  pretty  well  destroyed  by  the  In- 
dians—  a  tradition  which,  with  some  of  the  poetic  adorning  it  has 
received,  contained  no  doubt  some  exaggeration.  The  second  point 
brought  against  the  early  dates  is  the  result  of  an  investigation 
made  about  sixty  years  ago.  At  this  time,  when,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  men  were  then  living  whose  grandfathers  had  seen  the 
second  generation  of  the  settlers,  almost  nothing  was  known  scien- 
tifically of  colonial  architecture,  a  number  of  antiquaries  thoroughly 
examined,  it  is  said,  every  house  on  the  "  Towne  Street,"  and  they 
reported  that  nothing  remained  of  the  ancient  settlement'  Their 
opinion,  the  best  possible  at  that  time,  can,  however,  hardly  be  con- 
sidered as  final.  It  must,  like  those  expressed  to-day,  be  constantly 
subject  to  revision,  and  we  think  that  in  the  light  of  later  evidence, 
overlooked  by  the  older  antiquaries,  it  must  be  revised. 

The  documentary  evidence  necessary  to  critically  test  tradition 
is,  in  the  earliest  period,  very  meagre.  The  wills  and  the  inven- 
tories attached  to  them  begin  at  a  time  when  alterations  and  ad- 
ditions had  to  a  certain  extent  been  made.  They  are  still  very 
valuable,  but  they  cannot  take  the  place  of  those  which  have  been 
lost  —  no  doubt  irrevocably  —  in  the  missing  First  Book  of  Wills. 
Notices  in  letters  are  few.  The  records  of  the  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colonies  are  valuable  as  showing  what  our 
neighbors  possessed,  but  allowance  must  be  made  to  adjust  these 
accounts  to  our  own  work.  Our  own  records  say  nothing  about 
buildings.  The  deeds  are  vague,  the  boundaries  so  indicated  that 
it  is  now  impossible  in  many  cases  to  identify  positively  a  tract  of 
land." 


*  H.  C.  Dorr,    The  Planting  and  Growth  of  Providence. 
*. Many  deeds  were  not  even  recorded. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    EARLIEST    PERIOD.  21 

I.     The  Roger  Mowry  House. 

When  we  turn  to  the  existing  house  and  remnant  of  a  house 
which  claim  the  long  descent  from  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  we  find  that  the  houses  of  that  date  were,  as  far  as  these 
examples  show,  all.  single-roomed,  story-and-a-half  structures  with 
a  huge  stone  chimney  at  one  end.  We  have  only  two  examples 
to  appeal  to,  and  of  these  only  one  is  now  standing.  In  the  case 
of  this  one,  however  —  the  so-called  Whipple  or  Abbott  house  on 
Abbott  street  near  the  North  Burying  Ground  in  Providence  —  tra- 
dition, the  documents,  and  the  testimony  of  the  house  itself  seem 
to  unite  in  the  statement  that  it  was  built  as  early  as  1653,  per- 
haps earlier.  It  belonged  undoubtedly  to  Roger  Mowry,  and  as 
his  tavern  played  a  very  prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  early 
colony.'  We  shall  therefore  refer  to  it  hereafter  as  the  "  Roger 
Mowry  house." 

This  house  as  the  visitor  approaches  it  along  Abbott  street,  up 
the  hill  from  North  Main,  gives  no  impression  of  its  age.  From 
above  it,  looking  back,  we  see  the  old  stone  chimney  (  Plate  3 ), 
which  though  topped  out  with  brick  is  almost  exactly  in  its  ancient 
condition,  and  which  shows,  on  its  sides,  the  shoulders  or  slopes 
which  mark  the  position  of  the  rafters  of  the  original  roof.  It  is 
inside  the  building,  however,  that  its  age  can  best  be  appreciated. 
The  plan  (Plate  4)  indicates  the  difference  between  the  old  and 
the  new  portions  of  the  house,  which  like  all  these  old  homesteads 
has  been  greatly  altered.  It  originally  consisted  of  the  single  "Fire 
Room"  shown  in  black  on  the  plan,  which  gives  the  additions  in 
cross-hatching  ;    and    in  that   room   the   original   framing    is   almost 

'  The  town  council  met  there,  and  tradition  says  Williams  held  prayer  meetings  in  it. 


22  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

intact.  The  four  corner  posts  PP,  QQ,  the  side  girts  BB,  which 
connected  each  pair  of  them -at  the  level  of  the  second  floor,  and 
the  "summer"'  or  large  middle  beam  A,  which  spanned  the  room 
lengthwise  from  the  chirmiey  girt  C,  connecting  the  two  posts  PP, 
to  the  end  girt  E,  connecting  QQ,  are  all  in  place  ;  and  those  of 
them  which  are  not  cased  show  their  ancient  chamfers  with  their 
mediaeval  stops. 

The  end  girt  E  is  cut  out  curiously  under  the  end  of  the 
"summer,"  as  is  shown  in  the  sketch  on  the  restored  section 
(Plate  5).  This  cutting  away,  which  is  quite  common  as  an  after- 
thought, is  here  probably  original  —  a  view  which  is  favored  by  the 
holes  for  the  pins  which  held  the  tenons  of  studs  or  posts  at  the 
sides.  These  posts  could  hardly  have  been  put  in  after  the  sill 
and  girt  were  in  place,  for  it  was  the  custom  to  tenon  them  at 
top  and  bottom.  The  framing  of  the  girts  into  the  corner  posts 
is  also  shown  in  a  sketch  on  the  section  (  Plate  5  ),  while  on  the 
plan  will  be  found  a  note  of  the  manner  in  which  the  old  sill  pro- 
jected into  the  room. 

The  present  arrangement  of  the  room  would  not  lead  the  visitor 
to  suspect  the  size  or  even  the  existence  of  the  old  stone  fireplace. 
There  is  a  fire-board  behind  the  stove,  and  on  each  side  of  the 
fire-board  a  closet.  Opening  one  of  the  closet  doors,  however, 
will  reveal  the  stone  cavern  wherein,  when  the  Town  Council  met, 
Roger  Mowry  burnt  the  logs  of  "this  dales  fireing,"  for  which,  and 
for  the  "  house  roome,"  we  read  the  Town  Treasurer  was  ordered, 
on  January  27,  1657,  to  pay  him  one  shilling  and  sixpence.'  Some 
idea  of  the  size  of  this  ancient  heating  apparatus  may  be  gained 
from  the  plan  and  from  the  section,  which  shows  that  it  was  nearly 


'  Derived  from  French  sonu/iier,  Latin  sagmaritis,  a  pack-horse. 
'  The  Early  Records  of  the    7'own  of  Providence,  Vol.  L,  p.  no. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    EARLIEST    PERIOD.  23 

as  high  as  the  underside  of  the  chimney  girt.  It  will  be  seen  that 
one  side  of  the  chimney  is  out  of  doors,  while  the  other  did  not, 
and  does  not  now,  reach  the  outer  wall  of  the  house.  It  was  in 
this  space  between  chimney  and  outer  wall  that  the  stairs,  or  the 
ladder  which  served  instead,  were  placed.  This  is  abundantly 
proved  in  other  houses,  some  of  which  still  retain  a  flight  of  stairs 
in  that  very  location. 

Upstairs,  in  what  the  old  inventories  call  the  "  Chamber,"  there 
is  at  present  a  large  high  room.  None  of  this  framing  can  be 
original  above  three  feet  or  so  from  the  floor  where  the  original 
posts  stop,  as  can  be  proved  by  sounding  the  casing  of  the  posts 
as  they  show  in  the  room.  The  shoulders,  also,  on  the  chimney, 
shown  in  Plate  3,  and  the  positions  of  the  old  shelves  or  water- 
tables  vS^'^'  (Plate  5),  which  were  made  to  project  a  couple  of 
inches  to  prevent  the  rain-water  from  running  down  the  chimney 
face  into  the  house,  leave  no  doubt  of  the  original  position  of  the 
rafters.  Their  evidence  may  always  be  relied  on,  whatever  the 
position  of  the  modern  roof.  The  original  house,  then '(  Plate  6), 
was  no  doubt  such  as  the  restoration  shows. 

An  examination  of  the  perspective  view  of  the  framing  of  this 
type  of  house  given  in  Plate  7  will  help  the  reader  to  understand 
the  more  technically  drawn  plan  and  elevation.  A  little  patience 
spent  in  studying  these  first  figures  will  be  of  much  value  in  the 
later  chapters,  as  the  names  "  sill,"  "  plate,"  "  summer,"  "  side  girt," 
"  end  girt,"  "  chimney  girt,"  "  floor  joist,"  "  rafter,"  "  collar  beam," 
and  "  post "  will  constantly  recur,  and  a  glance  at  Plate  7  will  ex- 
plain what  they  are,  better  than  many  words  of  definition. 

From  this  description,  with  a  study  of  the  drawings  which  ac- 
company it,  the  reader  can  form  a  clear  idea  of  the  original  house 
of   the  settlers  of    Providence.      With  such   houses   as   these,   with 


24  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES, 

their  gables  toward  the  street  and  their  chimneys  toward  the  hill, 
the  old  "  Towne  Street "  was  more  or  less  thickly  fringed."  And 
of  all  the  old  dwellings,  this  veteran  —  this  old  tavern  —  an  eye- 
witness of  the  town's  history,  a  sharer  in  all  its  early  struggles, 
almost  an   embodiment  of   its  early  life  —  alone   remains. 

II.     The  Arthur  Fenner  House. 

The  second  house  to  which  we  refer  —  that  of  Captain  Arthur 
Fenner  —  has  been  destroyed.  It  stood  in  Cranston,  in  the  Pocas- 
set  Valley,  just  south  of  Neutaconkanut  Hill,  near  the  present  vil- 
lage of  Thornton.  The  cellar  —  of  later  date  than  the  original 
house  —  is  still  visible,  and  the  masonry  of  it  is  excellent. 

The  ruins,  as  they  now  exist,'  lie  lengthwise  north-east  and 
south-west.  On  the  north-east  is  the  cellar  just  spoken  of  —  (see 
the  plan)  —  next  to  it  the  debris  of  the  chimney,  pulled  down  about 
1886;  beyond  that  the  decaying  sill  of  a  very  old  "  leantoe "  con- 
struction which  was  visible,  in  ruins,  in  1883;  and  beyond  this,  in 
turn,  at  the  extreme  south-west  of  the  group,  a  curious  square  de- 
pression, fringed  with  small  trees.  This  arrangement  will  be  made 
clear  by  reference  to  the  illustrations.  The  view  of  the  house' 
(Plate  8),  taken  before  it  fell  into  ruin,  shows  on  the  right  hand 
the  newer  house  which  stood  over  the  cellar,  in  the  middle  the 
stone  chimney,  with  the  remains  of  the  roof  of  an  older  house 
about  it,  and  on  the  left  the  old  lean-to.  In  Plate  9  —  a  sketch 
made  in  1884,  when  the  lean-to  had  fallen  and  its  beams  lay  on 
the  floor  in  front  of  the  chimney — the  fireplace  and  the  construc- 


'  H.  C.  Dorr,  Planting  and  Growth,  of  Providence,  p.  24. 

«  1894. 

^The  original  photograph  is  owned  by  Mr.  S,  A.  Hazard,  a  descendant  of  Arthur  Fenner. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    EARLIEST    PERIOD.  25 

tion  of  the  stack  are  clearly  shown.  A  measured  plan  of  the  ruins 
as  they  were  in  1885,  except  that  the  plan  of  the  cellar  is  given 
instead  of  that  of  the  house  over  it,  will  be  found  in  Plate  10. 
These  three  plates  give  all  the  data,  except  a  few  details,  now  ex- 
tant in   regard  to  this  curious  old  building. 

As  one  looks  at  Plate  8,  the  question  arises  —  What  are  the 
dates  of  the  different  parts  of  the  group }  The  lean-to  is  probably 
a  remnant  of  the  house  which  replaced  Captain  Fenner's  original 
"house  in  the  woods,"'  built  here  about  1655,'  and  burnt  during 
King  Philip's  War.'  This  rebuilding  probably  included  the  part 
of  the  house  over  the  depression  fringed  with  trees  at  the  left  of 
the  picture  in  Plate  8.  There  are  not  wanting  signs  which  make 
it  look  as  if  the  lean-to  was  built  of  the  remnants  or  was  itself  a 
remnant  of  the  earliest  building.  The  chimney  belonged,  part  of 
it  to  the  original  house,  part  of  it  to  the  rebuilding,  or  to  a  later 
period  still.  The  house  at  the  right  of  Plate  8,  over  the  newer 
cellar,  was,  according  to  accounts,  a  revolutionary  structure  of  no 
interest. 

Whatever  view,  we  may  take  of  the  history  of  the  house,  we 
must  start,  it  seems  to  us,  with  one  fact.  The  smaller  fireplace  in 
the  chimney  is  the  older  and  belonged  to  the  original  house,  which 
was  probably  built  by  "  old  Mr.  William  Carpenter."  It  is  narrow 
and  deep  and  low,  and  has,  over  the  opening,  an  oak  beam  i6i 
inches  wide  by  23  inches  deep,  beveled  on  the  fire  side,  and  on  its 
lower  corner,  on  the  room  side,  adorned  with  the  most  elaborate 
mouldings  in  the  colony.  (See  Plate  54).  These  mouldings,  too, 
though  of   classic  form,  betray  in   their   profiles   mediaeval   tradition 


^Letters  of  Roger    Williaiiis,   Narr.  Club  Pub.,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  374. 
"^  Early  Records  of  the   Town  of  Providence,  Vol.  II.,  p.  14. 
^  Letters  of  Roger    Williams,  quoted  above,   p.  379. 


26  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

and  die  away  at  the  end  in  a  manner  which  can  be  matched  in 
work  of  the  Gothic  period.  They  were  no  doubt  the  handiwork 
of  William  Carpenter,  worked  out  literally  by  hand ;  and  the  beam 
thus  ornamented  was  built  into  the  small  chimney,  probably  about 
the  size  of  that  shown  in  black  in  Plate  13,  about  1655.  This, 
the  original  chimney,  was,  in  later  alterations,  incorporated  in  the 
stack  which  appears  in  Plates  8  and  9. 

To  this  fact,  which  has  only  architectural  proof,  may,  perhaps, 
be  added  another.  It  will  be  seen  from  Plate  1 1  that  the  location 
of  the  summer,  given  by  measurements  taken  in  1883  when  the 
second  floor  could  be  studied,  is  unusual.  It  is  not  in  the  centre 
of  the  frame,  as  is  the  case  in  every  other  house.  It  occurred  to 
us  to  lay  out  a  plan  with  the  summer  in  the  centre  —  leaving  the 
summer  in  the  same  absolute  location  as  given  by  the  measure- 
ments, but  supposing  the  original  north  side  of  the  building  to 
have  been  at  the  same  distance  from  the  summer  as  the  actual 
south  side  was.  The  result,  as  shown  in  Plate  11,  did  not,  of 
course,  coincide  with  the  lean-to  plan,  but  it  brought  the  chimney 
and  fireplace  —  freed  from  the  mass  of  masonry  at  the  left  side  of 
it,  which  was  added  when  the  larger  and  newer  fireplace  was  built 
—  into  the  normal  relation  with  the  outside  of  the  house.  It  also 
brought  the  width  of  the  house,  16  feet  2  inches,  into  almost  exact 
agreement  with  a  curious  fragment,  in  the  handwriting  of  Captain 
Arthur  Fenner  himself,  lately  discovered  among  the  family  papers. 
This  runs:  "The  house  is  six  and  thirtie  foot  longe  and  16  foot 
wide  and  is  9  foot  and  od  inches  between  joynts.'"  If  we  consider 
the  plan   in   black   in    Plate   1 1   as  the  original   house,  and   assume, 


'  By  this  expression  he  probably  meant  the  distance  between  sill  and  plate,  the  height,  that  is,  of 
the  posts,  showing  that  he  was  speaking  of  a  story-and-a-half  house.  This  was  just  about  the  height 
of  the  posts  of  the  Mowry  house  ( lo  feet). 


THE    HOUSES    OF   THE    EARLIEST    PERIOD. 


27 


what  is  very  probable,  that  Fenner,  before  the  Indian  War,  dug  a 
cellar  toward  the  west  and  lengthened  his  house,  and  that  the 
western  end  of  the  depression  gives  the  limit  of  this  lengthening, 
we  reach  the  "  six  and  thirtie  foot "  of  which  the  old  Captain 
speaks  as  the  length  of  some  house.' 

Let  us  assume  that  this  was  the  original  length  of  the  house, 
and  that  it  was  burnt  in  the  Indian  War.  We  have  then  to  ex- 
plain why  Fenner,  when  in  rebuilding  he  widened  his  frame  to 
the  size  given  by  the  plan  of  the  lean-to  in  Plate  ii,  still  left  the 
summer  in  its  old  position  —  a  position  which  brought  it  out  of 
centre  in  the  new  work.  Perhaps  enough  of  the  original  frame, 
including  the  summer,  remained  to  lead  him  to  add  to  the  earlier 
construction  instead  of  beginning  anew.  This  explanation,  based 
on  economy — a  powerful  factor  in  all  alterations,  as  architects  well 
know — is  probably  the  true  solution  of  a  question,  which,  with  the 
ruins  before  us  as  they  existed  twelve  years  ago,  could  very  likely 
have  been  satisfactorily  answered. 

Fenner,  then,  according  to  our  conjectural  history,  rebuilt  his 
house  after  the  war  about  four  feet  wider  than  it  was  originally. 
If  we  are  asked  why  only  four  feet  wider,  we  answer  by  asking 
why  the  house  which  stood  on  the  eastern  cellar  was  only  four 
feet  and  eight  inches  wider  than  the  lean-to  and  the  depression. 
The  building,  then,  was  as  long  as  the  old  one,  with  one  chimney 
—  the  original  one  —  at  the  eastern  end.  Whether  there  was  ever 
another  at  the  western  extremity  we  do  not  know ;  if  there  was,  it 
has  been  gone  many  years.  This  lengthening  of  houses  was  no 
uncommon  thing  in  colonial  times.  Some  time  after  the  war,  per- 
haps-about  1685  or  even  1700,  possibly  even  after  the  old  pioneer's 


'  Prov.   Town   Papers,   No.  17,649.      We  admit  that  the  document  may  have  no  relation  to  this 
house. 


28  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

death,'  the  cellar  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  group  was  dug,  a  new 
house  built,  wider  than  the  other,  and  the  new  and  much  larger 
fireplace  constructed.  It  may  be,  of  course,  that  the  cellar  is  con- 
temporary with  the  newer  house  —  said  to  date  from  about  1790 — 
and  that  the  house  which  this  replaced,  that  was  built,  according 
to  our  conjecture,  from  1685-1703,  had  no  cellar,  or  only  a  small 
one,  and  simply  continued  the  lines  of  the  lean-to  frame.  At  any- 
rate,  the  chimney  stack,  as  we  see  it,  was  built  with  the  eastern 
fireplace  against  and  over  the  original  flue. 

The  house  must  by  the  time  of  the  Revolution  have  become 
quite  ruinous ;  for,  as  we  see  it  in  Plate  8,  a  new  house  has  arisen 
over  the  eastern  cellar."  Later  on,  as  we  see,  the  part  over  the 
depression  has  utterly  disappeared,  and  that  between  it  and  the 
chimney  has  been  patched  up  in  the  makeshift  which  we  know  as 
the  lean-to,  and  which  the  last  inhabitants  of  the  old  house  used 
as  a  kitchen.  For  the  fact  that  this  lean-to  part  was  once  a  two- 
story  house  is  proved  by  the  mortise  for  the  second -story  summer 
which  existed  in  the  second-story  chimney -girt  carrying  the  gable 
which  appears  in  Plates  8  and  9  above  the  lean-to  roof. 

There  are  other  hypotheses  upon  which  the  house  could  be  re- 
stored and  its  history  conjectured,  but  we  shall  leave  them  to  the 
ingenuity  of  the  reader.  He  has  our  data  before  him,  and  if  our 
conjectures  —  which  are,  after  all,  in  the  case  of  this  house  only 
conjectures  —  are  not  satisfactory  to  him,  and  they  are  not  alto- 
gether so  to  ourselves,  he  is  welcome  to  try  his  skill  on  the  most 
puzzling  problem  in  the  architectural  history  of   the  colony. 


'  October  lo,  1703. 

■■'Of  course,  it  is  possible  that  this  house  was  the  addition  of  1685-1703  with  a  later  roof — for, 
unfortunately,  no  inside  measurements  were  ever  taken,  so  far  as  we  know  ;  and  we  cannot  remem- 
ber whether  it  had  a  summer  or  not. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    EARLIEST    PERIOD. 


29 


If  this  must  be  the  verdict  on  its  architectural  history,  however, 
the  civil  record  of  this  house  is  one  of  the  clearest  with  which  we 
have  to  deal.  It  has  been  in  the  possession  of  Arthur  Fenner's 
descendants  till  within  the  memory  of  men  not  yet  old  ;  and,  but 
for  neglect  and  deliberate  destruction,  the  stronghold  of  the  col- 
onial captain  might  still  be  a  monument  to  his  memory. 


^"f 


CHAPTER    III. 


THE   HOUSES   OF  THE   SECOND   PERIOD,    1675-1700. 


HE  Indian  War  marks,  as  we  have  said,  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  colony.  There  must  have  been  an  in- 
creased feeling  of  security.  Then,  too,  the  second  and 
even  the  third  generation  was  growing  up ;  the  outlying  allotments 
were  being  settled ;  wealth  was  increasing,  and  the  effect  is  soon 
visible  in  architecture.  The  house  at  first  retains  the  same  plan 
as  before  the  war,  but  now  it  more  often  has  two  stories.  Alter- 
ation and  addition  are  no  doubt  liberally  made,  and  a  new  form 
of  house  comes  into  fashion  —  that  with  the  two  fireplaces  side  by 
side  in  one  enormous  chimney  at  the  end  of  the  house. 

The  number  of  houses  of  this  period — 1675 -1700  —  is  quite 
large  —  larger  probably  than  many  are  aware.  We  shall  study  five 
of  the  most  typical  examples,  referring  to  the  others  only  for  par- 
ticular features.  For  a  complete  list  as  far  as  now  known  to  us. 
Chapter  IX  may  be  consulted. 

The  five  houses  to  be  treated  are : 

I.  The  Thomas  Fenner  House,  Cranston,   1677. 

II.  The  Edward  Manton   House,  Manton,  circa   1680. 

III.  The  Thomas  Field  House,  Field's  Point,  c.  1694. 

IV.  The  Eleazer  Whipple  House,  Lime  Rock,  c.  1677. 
V.  The  Eleazer  Arnold   House,  Moshassuck,  c.  1687. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    SECOND    PERIOD.  31 


I.     The  Thomas  Fenner  House. 

According  to  the  tradition  of  the  Fenner  family,  the  house 
which  for  years  has  been  called  the  "  Sam  Joy "  house  was  built 
by  Captain  Arthur  Fenner  for  his  son  Thomas.  The  date  found, 
it  is  said,  upon  the  chimney  during  some  repairs,  seems  to  corrob- 
orate the  statement.  It  is  now  painted  in  black  letters  on  the 
whitewashed  stone -work,  "  1677,"  and  its  accuracy  can  hardly  be 
questioned.  It  has  not  the  character  of  an  artificial  date,  and  it 
marks  just  the  time  when  the  elder  Fenner,  rebuilding  his  own 
house,  would  provide  for  his  son  an  establishment  also,  near  by;' 
for  this  house  is  not  a  mile  over  the  hill  from  the  old  "  Fenner 
Castle."  It  has  always  been  in  the  Fenner  family,  though  not  in 
the  name,  and  is  now  possessed  by  Mr.  S.  A.  Hazard,  one  of  the 
descendants.  It  is  still  inhabited,  as  indeed  are  all  save  one  or 
two  of  these  old  Providence  dwellings. 

The  house  faces  the  east,  with  the  chimney  at  the  north  —  no 
doubt  as  a  protection  against  the  coldest  winds  —  and  is  on  a 
gentle  slope,  not  far  from  a  stream,  though  not  so  near  as  is  the 
Arthur  Fenner  house,  which  is  so  close  to  Ocquockamaug  Brook 
that  the  ancient  palisade  whereof  tradition  speaks  must,  if  it  ever 
existed,  have  enclosed  the  rivulet.  In  general,  indeed,  these  old 
houses  were  very  skilfully  placed,  aside  from  those  in  the  "  Towne 
Street,"  where  there  was  often  little  to  admire  in  the  location  of 
them.  In  the  outer  settlements  they  are  always  well  situated  on 
rising  ground,  near  the  inevitable  brook ;  near  wood,  of  course,  and 

'The  inventory  of  the  estate  of  William  Harris,  Early  Records  of  Providence,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  86, 
gives  among  debts  due  the  testator,  "of  Clabord  nayles  lent  to  Capt:  ffenner  1500,  to  be  payd  in 
nayles  againe."     The  date  of  the  inventory  is  1681. 


32  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

often  in  places  from  which  there  is  now  at  least,  whatever  might 
have  been  the  case  then,  a  fine  view.  A  brook  means  both  water 
and  meadow -land  where  the  settlers  obtained  "meadow  hay." 

To  return  to  the  house.  The  plan  of  the  first  story  (Plate  12) 
will  show  the  original  arrangement  of  the  house,  which  is  given  in 
black.  We  have  here  the  same  heavy  corner  posts  ;  the  same 
"  summer "  lengthwise  of  the  room,  which  is  about  seventeen  feet 
square  ;  and  the  same  stone  chimney,  with  a  fireplace  which  was 
originally  ten  feet  wide.  The  resemblance  to  the  Mowry  house  is 
complete,  except  that  this  house  was  built  with  two  stories.  The 
chimney  is  in  the  same  place,  and  one  side  of  it  —  the  western  — 
was  originally,  like  that  in  the  house  just  mentioned,  outside  the 
wooden  frame. 

In  the  second  story  we  find  the  summer  (Plate  13),  which  sup- 
ports the  third  floor,  running  across  the  house,  at  right  angles  to 
the  direction  of  the  summer  carrying  the  floor  below  —  an  arrange- 
ment adopted  to  form  a  tie  across  the  building  at  the  foot  of  the 
rafters,  which  all  have  collar  beams  besides. 

The  section  will,  with  the  plan,  make  clear  the  framing  spoken 
of,  as  well  as  the  peculiar  cutting  off  of  the  three  middle  rafters 
just  below  the  peak  of  roof,  of  which  no  one  can  now  say  whether 
it  is  the  result  of  accident  or  of  design.' 

There  are  two  doors  at  the  right  of  the  fireplace,  one  of  which 
is  marked  W  in  Plate  15.  It  will  be  noticed  that  one  of  these, 
as  the  plan  shows,  leads  to  the  present  pantry,  and  that  the  other 
(marked  W)  is  now  closed.  Where  did  it  lead.?  In  the  floor  of 
the  pantry  is  shown  a  square  patch  which  gives  the  answer  to  this 


'  This  is  not  sliown   on   the  perspective  of  the   framing,  which   may  be  considered   as  a  typical 
two-story  house,  while  it  follows  the  dimensions  and  form  of  this  dwelling. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    SECOND    PERIOD.  33 

question,  for  investigation  in  the  cellar  made  it  clear  that  this 
marked  —  not  the  repairing  of  a  worn  spot  in  the  floor,  but  the 
filling  of  a  trap -door.  In  the  corner  between  the  chimney  founda- 
tion and  the  east  wall  of  the  cellar  the  framing  changed.  Though 
still  of  oak  it  was  much  lighter  than  that  in  the  rest  of  the  cellar, 
which  was  of  7x12  inch  white  oak  beams  laid  flatwise,  four  inches 
apart.  Now,  this  lighter  framing  was  arranged  for  a  trap-door 
which  had  been  filled  up  —  and  filled  up  recently,  for  the  timber 
used  in  it  was  not  oak  but  spruce.  Here,  then,  was  the  original 
trap -door  to  the  cellar.'  Again,  in  the  second  story,  also  in  the 
corner  between  the  chimney  and  the  east  wall  of  the  house,  and 
so  just  above  the  pantry,  there  is  in  the  floor  a  series  of  oblong 
holes,  now  filled  up.  These  were  the  holes  for  the  balusters  at  the 
head  of  the  old  staircase  (Plate  13),  probably  not  the  original  one, 
but  one  which  has  long  been  done  away.  It  was  to  this  staircase 
that  the  long  unused  door  led,  while  the  other  led  to  the  trap- 
door and  the  ladder  to  the  cellar.  Neither  of  these  doors,  however, 
though  they  are  of  a  very  old  form,  nor  the  partition  which  con- 
tains them,  are  part  of   the  original  house. 

In  the  frontispiece  we  have  a  drawing  of  the  house  as  it  appears 
to-day  (1895).  The  arrangement  of  the  cellar  makes  it  appear  that 
the  lean-to  was  not  part  of  the  original  house.  It  was,  perhaps, 
the  earliest  addition  —  a  fact  vouched  for  by  the  ancient  windows, 
now  boarded  up,  which  still  exist  in  its  west  wall.  It  is  said  that 
the  windows  now  in  the  house  took  the  place  of  these  small  ones 
throughout  the  building,  except  in  the  third  story  next  the  chimney. 
No  doubt  these  sash  were  leaded  —  either  with  diamond  panes  or 


'  The  present  stairs  to  the  cellar  are  new,   and  descend  under  those,  also   new,  which  go  to  the 
second  story. 


34  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

with  square  lights  Hke  those  in  the  sash  of  the  Coddington  house 
now  in  the  Cabinet  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society.  The 
brick  chimney- top  is  also  modern,  but  is  probably  panelled  in  a 
way  somewhat  similar  to  the  original  stone  stack.  We  have  so 
many  examples  left  that  it  is  easy  to  restore  it,  as  we  have  done 
in  Plate   i8,  which  represents  the  house  as  it  was  built. 

The  next  addition  after  the  lean-to  was  at  the  end  away  from 
the  chimney.  This,  or  its  successor,  became  ruinous  and  was  pulled 
down  and  replaced  by  the  present  southern  end  about   1837. 

The  cellar  is  of  good  masonry,  with  small  windows  which  may 
possibly  be  original.  The  curious  thickening  of  the  wall,  when  the 
new  cellar  at  the  south  end  was  built,  resulted  from  the  filling -in 
of  the  ragged  interstices  at  the  back  of  the  old  foundation  wall 
when  this  wall  was  uncovered  by  the  new  excavation.'  In  the 
chimney  foundation  and  in  the  west  wall  of  the  cellar  are  niches, 
which  were  probably  shelves.  The  steps  from  the  new  cellar  to 
the  old  are  formed,  as  the  section  shows,  of  old,  finely  chamfered 
oak  beams  —  probably  the  summer,  cut  in  two,  of  the  old  south 
end. 

The  original  fireplace,  of  which  we  give  a  restoration  in  Plate 
16,  is  one  of  the  largest  which  has  come  down  to  us.  It  extends 
from  a  point  a  little  to  the  right  of  the  present  fireplace  opening 
—  K,  in  Plate  15  —  to  the  point  marked  /  on  the  left  of  the  same 
drawing.  The  fireplace  which  there  appears,  with  the  fire- board 
taken  down,  is  of  brick ;  and  is  built,  as  the  plan  ( Plate  1 2 )  will 
show,  within  the  ancient  stone  opening. 

The  framing  of  the  house,  which  is  the  best  example  of  a  two- 
story  house  of  its  date  now  standing,  and  which  we  have  had  very 


'  In  one  house  the  ragged  backs  of  such  a  stone  wall  are  left  visible  in  the  newer  cellar. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    SECOND    PERIOD. 


35 


good  opportunities  for  measuring,  is  explained  by  the  perspective 
view  of  the  original  frame  in  Plate  i^     The  corner  braces  appear  |  )") 

now  only  in  the  upper  part  of  the  house.  A  comparison  of  this 
drawing  with  the  corresponding  view  of  the  framing  of  the  Roger 
Mowry  house  ( Plate  7 )  will  be  instructive,  and  will  show  very 
clearly  the  change  from  the  first  period. 


II.     The  Edward  Manton  House. 

On  the  "  Goddard  Road,"  as  it  is  called,  just  north  of  the  Old 
Killingly  Road,  and  a  little  way  beyond  the  end  of  the  Manton  car 
track,  stands  the  house  which  once  belonged  to  Edward  Manton  — 
if  not  to  his  father,  Shadrach,  sometime  "  Towne  Clarke  "  of  early 
Providence.      It  is  inhabited  and  in  good  repair. 

As  will  appear  in  the  drawing  (Plate  21)  the  house  has  now  a 
long  sloping  roof  toward  the  north.  This  is  a  later  addition,  as  is 
proved  by  the  existence  of  the  old  sill,  projecting  into  the  room, 
above  the  floor,  on  the  north  side  of  the  original  house.  A  little 
study  of  the  figure  will  make  this  clear.  We  have,  then,  in  this 
house,  a  survival  in  the  second  period  of  the  type  of  the  first ;  for 
this  house  belonged  to  Edward  Manton,  the  son  of  Shadrach,  and 
was  probably  built  at  the  time  of  his  marriage,  in  1680.  It  may, 
of  course,  be  earlier;  for — as  a  comparison  of  it  with  the  Roger 
Mowry  house  will  show  —  it  has  all  the  marks  of  the  very  early 
houses,  and  it  may  have  been  Shadrach  Manton's  "  house  in  the 
woods,"  though  of  such  a  house   we   find   no  trace   in  his  papers.' 


'  Shadrach  Manton  owned  land  in  "  Secessacutt,"  which  was  on  the  Woonasquatucket,  near  the 
site  of  this  house,  if  it  did  not  include  it,  as  early  as  1661. — Early  Records  of  Providence,  Vol.  I., 
p.  91. 


36  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

We  have,  therefore,  assumed  the  later  date,  though  we  assure  our 
readers  that  the  architectural  evidence  would  place  it  earlier. 

The  house,  as  it  stands,  is  an  excellent  example  —  the  least 
changed  of  any  of  the  single- room,  story -and -a-half  houses  that 
have  come  down  to  us.  It  has  a  few  peculiarities.  The  projec- 
tion of  the  sill  into  the  room — which  we  noticed  in  the  Mowry 
house  —  occurs  here;  and,  as  it  is  confined  to  these  two  houses,  it 
gives  a  strong  impression  in  favor  of  an  earlier  date  than  1680. 
The  chimney  is  rather  roughly  built  and  shows  signs  of  patching, 
though  not  where  we  should  expect  a  patch,  under  the  lean-to  roof, 
which,  as  its  pitch  is  very  much  flatter  than  that  of  the  original 
roof,  must  have  called  for  an  addition  to  the  chimney  to  fill  up 
the  space  between  it  and  the  old  rafter.  This  would  make  the 
lean-to  a  part  of  the  original  house  but  for  the  unanswerable  evi- 
dence of  the  old  sill.  The  addition  to  the  chimney,  then,  was  no 
doubt  made  more  dexterously  than  the  later  patchings  ;  and,  in- 
deed, as  all  the  patching  which  can  be  seen  is  comparatively  recent, 
the  joints  between  the  old  and  new  work  have,  no  doubt,  been 
covered  by  some  new  pointing.  A  glance  at  the  section  ( Plate  2 1 ) 
which  should  be  compared  with  the  section  of  the  Field  house 
(Plate  25)  will  show  that  the  low  angle  made  by  the  collar  beams 
with   the  lean-to  rafters  can  hardly  have  been  original.' 

On  account  of  the  low  pitch  of  the  lean-to  roof  and  the  near- 
ness of  the  northern  eaves  to  the  ground,  we  were  enabled  to  make 
exact  measurements  of  the  chimney- top,  and,  further,  to  look  over 
into  the  flues.  There  are  two  of  these  separated  by  a  partition  or 
"with,"  as  it  is  called,  of  flat  stone,  about  li  inches  thick,  set  on 
edge.      The  chirnney-top  outside  has  a  flat  pilaster  on  each  wide 


See  also  the  Waterman  house,   Chapter  1  \^ 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    SECOND    PERIOD.  37 

face  and  none  on  the  ends.  This  fact — that  there  are  two  flues, 
and  that  there  was  a  fireplace  in  the  second  story  —  is  the  strongest 
evidence  for  the  date   1680. 

The  part  of  the  house  toward  the  road  —  that  is,  toward  the 
east,  for  the  chimney  is  at  the  west  end  —  is  a  small  addition  of 
late  date.  The  last  few  feet  in  length  of  the  main  house  were 
also  added,  as  the  plan  shows  —  though  this  was  done  quite  early. 
The  present  dormer  replaces  an  older  one.  Whether  there  was  a 
dormer  on  the  original  roof  it  is  impossible  to  say  ;  but,  as  they 
were  common  elsewhere  before  1700,  there  is  some  possibility  that 
there  was. 

III.     The  Thomas  Field  House. 

Up  to  the  autumn  of  1894  a  picturesque  and  ruinous  old  house 
stood  on  a  knoll  at  the  head  of  the  "cove"  at  the  north  of  Sassa- 
fras Point.  This  was  once  the  house  of  Thomas  Field,  son  of 
William  Field,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Providence.  It  lay  east 
and  west,  and  consisted  of  two  houses  —  the  newer  of  which,  that 
at  the  western  end,  which  is  still  standing,  cannot,  from  the  evi- 
dence of  its  construction,  its  end  chimney  of  brick  and  its  ancient 
framing  with  summer  and  girts,  be  later  than  171 5.  The  eastern 
half  was  evidently  older  yet,  and  was  probably  built  at  the  time  of 
Thomas  Field's  marriage  in  1694.  It  was  one  of  the  few  examples 
remaining  in  the  Plantations  of  a  house  built  with  a  lean-to;  for 
the  section  (Plate  25)  shows  that  the  lean-to  here  cannot  have 
been  an  addition,  but  was  an  integral  part  of  the  framing.  The 
old  house,  therefore,  consisted  of  a  "fire-room"  which  is  the  small- 
est of  which  we  have  record,  and  a  lean-to  at  the  north  of  it,  with 
no  cellar.      The  chimney,  at  the  west  end,  was  of  stone  up  to  the 


38  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

level  of  the  second  floor.  Whether  it  was  of  stone  originally  above 
that  point  we  cannot  say,  for  there  were  the  remains  of  a  brick 
construction,  with  two  flues,  starting  where  the  stone -work  stopped.' 
A  few  years  after  the  house  was  built  its  owner  added  at  the  east- 
ern end  a  room  with  a  cellar  under  it. 

A  study  of  the  section  (Plate  25)  will  show  how  the  lean-to 
roof  was  managed.  The  pitches  are  the  same  or  nearly  so  on  both 
sides.  To  put  the  plates  of  the  fire -room  frame  {P  Q  in  the  sec- 
tion) at  the  same  level  would  bring  the  eaves  of  the  lean-to  — 
there  was  no  cornice  in  the  classic  or  later  colonial  sense  in  these 
older  houses  —  lower  than  the  top  of  the  side -girt  at  the  second 
floor,  an  arrangement  not  to  be  tolerated.  The  southern  plate, 
then,  was  put  at  the  level  usual  in  a  story-and-a-half  house,  and 
the  northern  one  allowed  to  come  above  it.  But,  if  this  northern 
plate  was  allowed  to  come  up  high  enough  for  the  lean-to  rafter 
to  rest  upon  it,  it  would  be  higher  than  the  old  carpenter  desired. 
He  therefore  compromised.  He  raised  his  frame  with  the  north- 
ern plate  high  enough  to  cut  one  inch  into  the  collar  beams  of 
the  roof.  Then  he  framed  his  roof  trusses  together  on  the  ground, 
with  the  collars  mortised  and  pinned  into  the  rafter,  and  cut  "gains" 
or  notches  one  inch  deep  and  the  width  of  the  plate  Q  in  length, 
out  of  the  under  sides  of  the  collars.  To  hoist  each  truss  up  till 
the  collar  beam  rested  on  Q  was  the  next  step,  after  which  he 
moved  it  along  till  the  "gain"  in  the  collar  slipped  over  Q,  and 
the  feet  of  the  rafters  or  "  spars  "  as  he  probably  called  them,  fell 
into  the  cuts  made  for  them'  or  at  the  places  marked  for  them 
in  the  plate  P  in   the  wall  of  the  fire -room,  and  on  the  plate  R 

'  It  is  probable  that  the  brick-work  of  this  cliimiiey  was  original,  and  was  the  earliest  work  of 
the  kind  in  Providence. 

''He  called  the  collar  beams  "couples"  very  likely. 


THE    HOUSES    OF   THE    SECOND    PERIOD.  39 

in  the  wall  of  the  lean-to,  which  was  at  the  level  of  the  side -girt 
B  of  the  fire -room. 

As  it  stood  just  before  its  destruction,  the  old  house,  in  spite 
of  its  gruesome  surroundings  and  its  tenantry  of  hens,  was  well 
worth  a  visit  from  anyone  who  was  curious  to  see  how  our  fore- 
fathers lived.  Unlike  any  other  house  we  know,'  it  had  never  been 
plastered  either  on  walls  or  ceiling,  and  posts,  girts,  summer  and 
floor  joists  were  visible  as  clearly  as  they  were  in  all  the  old 
houses  before  lathing  came  into  fashion. 

When  the  newer  house  was  built,  about  17 15,  as  an  addition 
to  the  old  one,  its  brick  chimney  was  backed  up  against  that  of 
the  original  house.  This  is  proved  by  the  rough  mortar  projecting 
from  the  joints  on  the  back  of  the  later  chimney,  which  was  not 
connected  with  the  earlier  one  except  in  the  first  story,  where  an 
oven  was  opened  from  the  back  of  the  old  fire-place.  The  later 
house  has  the  same  framing  as  the  older  one,  though  the  sticks 
are  smaller.  It  continued  westward  on  the  plan  the  lines  of  the 
first  building,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  a  two  story  building  from 
the  start,  though  this  is  not  certain,  and  it  may  possibly  have  at 
first  continued  the  old  lean-to,  and  have  been  built  up  later.  At 
any  rate  the  present  roof  is  not  original.  This  house  is  plastered, 
both  stories,  and  the  beams  in  it  are  cased  with  white  pine  boards 
I  of  an  inch  thick,  as  are  those  in  the  Thomas  Fenner  house  and 
some  others. 

This  casing,  and  the  plastering,  are  probably  contemporary 
with  the  house,  for  lathing  was  in  use  at  this  date  and  even 
earlier,  as  is  proved  by  the  inventory  of  Benjamin  Beers,  taken 
July  5,   1714,  which  mentioned  "an  old  lathing  hammer."' 

'  Except  the  Arthur  Fenner. 

'^  Early  Records  of  Providence,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  260. 


40  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 


IV.     The  Eleazer  Whipple  House. 

What  is  now  best  known  as  the  "Ben  Mowry"  house,  the  home- 
stead built  in  1677  by  Eleazer  Whipple/  stands  in  what  was  known 
as  Louisquisset,  on  the  edge  of  the  present  village  of  Lime  Rock. 
The  present  dwelling  is  a  long  structure  lying  east  and  west,  and 
the  eastern  part  is  quite  new,  probably  not  earlier  than  1825.  The 
roof  is  also  entirely  modern.  The  space  in  which  the  stairs  now 
exist  is  an  eastern  extension  of  the  original  single  room  of  which, 
like  the  Thomas  Fenner  house,  the  ancient  dwelling  consisted ;  but 
in  this  case  it  looks  as  if  it  might  have  been  part  of  the  original 
building. 

The  old  or  western  half  of  the  house  consists  really  of  two  inde- 
pendent houses,  each  with  its  complete  frame,  summer  and  all,  and 
independent  fireplaces.  The  southern  room  is  probably  the  orig- 
inal. The  northern  was  built  later  against  the  old  one,  as  the  plan 
(Plate  27),  and  the  small  section  drawn  on  it,  will  show.  Here  we 
see  two  girts  side  by  side  —  a  very  interesting  arrangement,  recall- 
ing that  soon  to  follow,  if  it  did  not  already  exist,  where  two  rooms 
are  built  as  parts  of  the  same  building  with  one  girt  between  and 
no  summer  in  the  side  room.  The  original  house  was  probably 
almost  exactly  like  the  Thomas  Fenner,  with  the  summer  running 
crosswise  in  the  second  story,  and  stone -topped  chimney  with  only 
one  fireplace.  When  the  second  house  was  added  the  chimney  of 
the  new  fireplace  was  patched  on  to  the  older  stone -work.  The 
original  stone  top  is  now  replaced  by  a  brick  chimney  which  prob- 
ably is,  like  the  roof,  comparatively  new. 


'He  was  a  carpenter  or  "  housewright. " — Austin,  Geneal.   Dictionary  of  Rhode  Island,  p.  222. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    SECOND    PERIOD.  41 

The  liking  our  forefathers  had  for  fine  views  is  nowhere  better 
illustrated  than  in  the  position  of  this  house.  It  stands  on  the 
western  brow  of  the  ridge  which  separates  the  Blackstone  valley 
from  the  valley  of  the  Moshassuck,  and  commands  a  wide  prospect 
over  the  rolling  country  to  the  west  and  southwest.  It  faces  the 
south,  and  was  probably  protected  by  the  woods  from  the  north 
winds  which  now  have  little  mercy  on  its  exposed  situation. 

The  peculiarity  of  this  building  —  where  as  a  later  addition  we 
find  the  type  which  a  trifle  later  is  characteristic  of  the  second 
period  —  will  appear  in  a  stronger  light  when  we  have  studied  the 
next  house  which  we  have  to  consider. 

V.     The  Eleazer  Arnold  House. 

This  picturesque  dwelling  —  built  in  1687  by  Eleazer  Arnold  — 
stands  on  the  old  North  road,'  half  a  mile  this  side  of  the  Butter- 
fly Factory,  and  about  a  mile  west  of  Lonsdale.  It  is  very  well 
placed  on  rising  ground,  near  a  brook,  and  not  far  from  the  bank 
of  the  Moshassuck  river.  The  house  differs  from  any  we  have  thus 
far  studied.  It  was  originally  built,  as  the  old  slope  of  the  chimney 
shows  (Plate  28),  with  a  lean-to  like  the  Field  house.  But  here 
the  lean-to  is  not  a  sleeping -room  or  a  mere  store-room.  The 
chimney,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  perspective  (Plate  28)  and  the 
plan  (Plate  29),  extended  across  the  whole  end  of  the  house  on  the 
outside;  the  lean-to  became  the  kitchen  and  had  its  own  fireplace 
like  its  more  aristocratic  neighbor,  the  old  fire -room.  Here,  then, 
we  have  the  plan  which  is  characteristic  of  the  second  period  — 
that  of  two  fireplaces  side   by  side   in   two  different  rooms   of  the 

'  Lonsdale  Avenue. 


42  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

same  house.  In  this  house  the  lengthening  shown  on  the  plan 
(Plate  29)  at  the  end  opposite  the  chimney  was  not  an  addition,' 
but  was,  like  the  lean-to,  a  part  of  the  original  building;  and,  a 
marked  peculiarity  in  a  Providence  house,  there  was  a  gable  on 
the  side  which  now  faces  the  road. 

Plate  32,  which  gives  a  restoration  of  the  original  building,  will 
explain  these  statements,  while  the  sections  (Figures  30  and  31) 
will  show  the  transition  from  the  ancient  framing  to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  present  roof.  The  house,  which  is  the  oldest  example 
we  have  of  a  two -story  house  built  with  a  lean-to,  was  originally 
framed,  as  the  section  shows,  with  the  ordinary  two -story  construc- 
tion in  the  front  room,  while  on  the  rear  the  framing  stopped  with 
the  level  of  the  new  side -girt.  The  original  side -girt  of  the 
Thomas  Fenner  house  has  here  become  a  sort  of  second  summer 
(Plate  30).  The  plate  on  the  front  carries  the  rafters  of  that  side 
of  the  roof.  The  second  story  chimney  girt,  X,  the  second  story 
end  girt  Y,  the  additional  end  girt  Z  and  the  second  story  sum- 
mer, which  here,  as  in  the  Thomas  Fenner  house,  runs  across  the 
house,  are  notched  down  upon  the  plate  over  the  second  summer 
(corresponding  to  the  plate  on  that  side  in  the  Fenner  house),  and, 
projecting  beyond,  are  tenoned  into  the  rafters  in  the  rear  of  the 
roof,  which  run  down  and  frame  into  the  lower  plate  (marked  W 
in  Plate  30).  We  have  thus  four  trusses  united  by  purlins,"  which 
are  framed  into  the  principal  rafters  P  and  Q.  These  trusses  are 
all  original,  and  the  absence  of  any  stud  mortises  in  that  over  the 
girt  which  usually  formed  the  end  of  the  house,  prove  that  the 
present  length  was  that  of  the  original  building. 


'  The  chimney  in  this  addition  is  new. 

"The  purlin  is  the  horizontal  beam  framed  between  the  trusses  (see  Plate  31)  to  carry  the  small 
rafters  on  which  the  roof  boards  are  nailed. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    SECOND    PERIOD.  43 

When  the  modern  roof  was  put  on,  the  rear  of  the  house  was 
built  up  and  a  new  plate  put  on  at  the  level  of  the  third  floor,  as 
the  section  shows.  The  old  tie  beams  were  taken  out  and  replaced 
by  others  spanning  the  second  story  rooms  and  supporting  the 
old  rafters,  or  were  spliced  so  as  to  accomplish  the  same  purpose, 
and  the  new  rafters  were  sustained  in  the  middle  by  struts  from 
the  old  trusses. 

In  the  longitudinal  section  (Plate  31)  can  be  seen  two  slanting 
beams  cutting  across  the  trusses,  and  interrupting  the  common 
rafters  (T)  supported  by  their  purlins.  These  are  the  valley  rafters 
of  the  old  gable  which  once  existed  on  the  front  of  the  house.  The 
fact  that  the  rafter  on  which  they  meet  does  not  run  down  to  the 
plate,  and  never  did  run  down,  is  proof  of  this.  We  know  it 
never  ran  down  because  the  collar  beams  (Plate  31)  run  through 
to  the  roof  and  the  rafter  is  tenoned  into  the  collar,  not  the  collar 
into  the  rafter.  Further,  the  rafters  (7",  Plate  31)  now  filling"  in 
the  space  between  the  two  valleys  are  newer,  and  are  nailed  to 
them,  a  thing  not  dreamed  of  by  the  ancient  carpenters.  Finally, 
the  mortises  for  the  gable  purlins  still  exist  in  the  valley  rafters  — 
which  are  laid  flatwise  and  halved  into  the  truss  rafters' — and,  by 
the  angle  they  make  with  the  face  of  the  valley,  bear  invincible 
testimony  to  their  character,  and  to  the  existence  of  the  gable. 

How  common  an  occurrence  this  gable  on  the  front  of  a  house 
was  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.  Though  this  is  the  only 
instance  of  it  in  Providence,  we  know  from  the  work  in  Newport 
and  in  the  other  colonies  that  it  cannot  have  been  unfamiliar. 


'  Note  the  distinction  in  the  section  (Plate  31)  between  the  principal  rafter,  which  is  part  of  the 
truss,  and  the  common  rafter  which  the  truss  carries  by  means  of  the  purlins.  The  truss  consists  of 
these  principal  rafters, — one  on  each  side  —  the  collar  beam  which  is  a  tie,  and  of  the  tie  beam 
formed  by  the  summer  in  the  attic  floor. 


44  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

The  dwelling-house  in  the  Providence  Plantations  has  now 
passed  through  several  steps,  which  may  be  roughly  indicated  as 
follows:  First,  the  single -roomed,  story -and -a -half  structure  with 
one  fireplace;  second,  the  two -story  house  with  one  room  on  each 
floor,  still  with  a  single  fireplace';  third,  the  story- and -a -half  house 
with  a  lean-to,  but  with  only  one  fireplace;  fourth,  the  story-and- 
a-half  house  with  the  lean-to  and  two  fireplaces,  like  the  building 
we  have  just  considered.  Though  these  steps  do  not  follow  each 
other  chronologically — for  all  these  types  appear  together  in  the 
second  period  —  they  still  show  progress  toward  a  larger  dwelling. 
In  the  third  period  we  shall  find  houses  of  two  full  stories,  a  form 
which,  as  we  saw,  occurs  in  the  Eleazer  Whipple  house,  in  the 
shape  of  an  addition  to  a  single -roomed,  two -story  house. 


'  During  the  first  period  all  lean-tos  were  probably  additions. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE    HOUSES   OF   THE   THIRD   PERIOD,    1700-1725. 


HE  houses  of  the  third  period  do  not  differ  in  plan  from 
those  of  the  second,  nor  do  they  always  differ  in  con- 
struction. The  characteristics  of  the  period  are  the  pre- 
dominance of  two -story  houses  and  the  increased  use  of  brick,  of 
which,  finally,  all  the  chimneys  are  built,  while  they  retain  exactly 
the  same  forms  as  those  of  earlier  times. 

The  date  of  the  first  use  of  brick  in  Providence  is  difficult  to 
fix.  William  White,  bricklayer,  was  in  the  town  as  early  as  1665,' 
but,  in  a  deed  of  1671,'  he  is  expressly  named  as  "Of  Boston,"  so 
he  did  not  remain.  The  earliest  mention  of  bricks  of  which  we  are 
aware  is  found  in  the  inventory  of  Epenetus  Olney,  Senior,  who 
died  in  1698.'  These  brick  were  probably  made  near  the  house, 
though  possibly  they  came  from  Taunton  or  Nayatt,  where  the  clay 
pits  may  have  been  worked  since  very  early  times.  The  brick  in 
the  chimney  of  the  Greene  house  at  Buttonwoods,  built  about  17  15, 
are  said  to  be  of  clay  dug  and  burnt  on  the  shore  of  the  salt  water 
cove  on  which  the  dwelling  stands.  Bricks  were  probably  made, 
then,  in   Providence,  as   early  as    1690,  or  thereabouts  ;   though  the 

^  Early  Records  of  Providence,  Vol.  III.,  p.  72. 
'  The  same.  Vol.  IV.,  p.  9. 

^This  inventory,  allowed  July  12,  i6g8,  mentions  "A  percell  of  sawne  bords,"  and  "A  percell 
of  Brickes." 


46  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

first  actual  proof  of  the  existence  of  the  industry  is  the  grant  by 
the  Town  Council,  in  1725,'  of  the  right  to  "dig  clay  at  Waybaus- 
sett  Hill  for  to  make  bricks."  At  any  rate,  whatever  the  date  of 
their  introduction,  the  use  of  brick  became  general  in  this  period, 
and  the  stone  chimney,  though  it  lingered  very  late  in  the  South 
County,  disappeared  from  Providence. 

In  this  period  we  shall  discuss  four  houses  : 

I.  The  Epenetus  Olney  House,  North  Providence,  c.  1700-05. 

n.  The  Benjamin  Waterman  House,  Johnston,  c.  1700. 

HI.  The  John  Crawford  House,  Providence,  c.  1715. 

IV.  The  James  Greene  House,  Buttonwoods,  c.  1715. 


I.     The  Epenetus  Olney  House. 

This  stands  on  the  bank  of  the  Woonasquatucket  river  between 
Allendale  and  Lymansville.  It  is  untenanted  and  is  rapidly  going 
to  pieces.  It  has  always  been  and  still  is  (1895)  in  the  Olney 
family,  and  was  no  doubt  built  by  Epenetus  Olney,  the  second  of 
the  name,  probably  about   1700  or  1705. 

The  plan  and  sections  will  show  the  arrangement  of  this  house, 
which  is  like  that  of  the  Arnold  house  except  that  here  there  are 
two  full  stories  and  no  lean-to.  The  perspective  of  the  framing 
(Plate  37),  without  the  roof  which  is  not  old,  will  show,  with  the 
details  in  Plates  56  and  57,  Chapter  VII.,  the  scheme  of  the  build- 
ing. It  is  easier  to  study  the  frame  of  this  house  than  that  of  any 
other,  because  of  its  very  dilapidation,  which  renders  the  work 
accessible  and  enables  it  to  be  studied  at  leisure. 

'Records  quoted  by  H.  C.  Dorr,  "  The  Planting  and  Growth  of  Providence"  pp.  130-31. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    THIRD    PERIOD.  47 

The  chimney  at  the  west  end  of  the  house,  toward  the  river, 
is  partly  of  stone  and  partly  of  brick.  The  stone  work,  which 
rises  to  the  level  of  the  plates,  is  the  best  of  its  kind  now  stand- 
ing in  Rhode  Island,  a  worthy  example  of  a  lost  art,  a  proof  that 
some  apprentice  of  old  John  Smith  or  his  son  —  by  the  way  there 
was  relationship  between  the  Olneys  and  the  Smiths  —  had  bettered 
his  old  master's  instruction.  Above  the  level  of  the  top  of  the 
plate  the  chimney  was  built  of  brick,  one  of  the  earliest  instances 
of  the  use  of  this  material  in  Providence.'  The  bricks  (Plate  33) 
are  very  artistically  handled;  the  course  immediately  above  the 
stone -work  consists  of  headers.  Above,  for  some  distance,  perhaps 
originally  for  the  whole  gable,  the  courses  are  alternately  of 
stretchers  and  of  headers,  which,  in  their  turn,  are  alternately  red 
and  dark  grey  blue,  making  a  very  artistic  arrangement.  The 
three  fireplaces  in  the  house,  two  on  the  first  floor  of  stone,  and 
one  on  the  second  of  brick,  required  three  flues  here  as  in  the 
Arnold  house,  but  in  this  chimney  the  third  flue  falls  back  into 
the  main  stack  before  the  roof  is  reached,  and  instead  of  a  T- 
shaped  top  we  have,  or  had  as  the  chimney  was  originally  built,  a 
stack  with  three  pilasters  on  the  wider  faces  and  none  on  the  nar- 
rower, an  arrangement  which  can  be  traced  in  the  chimney  top  as 
rebuilt  in  its  present  form,  and  which  we  have  shown  in  Plate  37. 
The  brick  gable  has  been  altered  to  suit  the  change  of  pitch, 
when  the  new  roof  was  .put  on  the  old  house,  to  match  that  of 
the  new  house  which  was  added  at  the  east,  and  the  windows  at 
each  side  of  the  chimney  probably  date  from  this  change. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  compare  this  house  with  that  of  Thomas 
Fenner,  as  we  can  do  by  means  of  the  cross  sections  and  the  per- 

'  As  has  been  said,  the  chimney  in  the  Field  house  is  probably  an  earlier  instance. 


48  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

spective  views  of  the  framing  of  each  building.  In  both  houses 
the  stairs  were  in  the  same  place,  at  the  side  of  the  chimney,  and 
in  this  house  one  entrance  to  the  old  part  still  leads  to  a  passage- 
way which,  with  a  modern  pantry,  fills  up  that  corner.  In  the 
second  story,  however,  though  there  is  now  a  closet  over  the  first 
story  pantry,  the  step-ladder,  or  ver}'^  steep  rough  stair  leading  to 
the  garret,  is  or  was  still  in  place.  It  will  be  noticed  that  this 
house  is  exactly  like  the  Thomas  Fenner  house'  with  what  we  may 
call  the  half  of  another  house  added  to  it  at  the  side.  One  of  the 
side -girts  is  the  same  in  both  stories,  so  is  the  summer.  The  other 
side -girt  of  the  Fenner  house  is  now,  as  in  the  Field  and  Arnold 
houses,  a  kind  of  second  summer,  carrying  the  ends  not  only  of 
the  floor  joists  over  the  main  room,  but  of  those  over  the  side 
room  as  well.  There  is  here,  however,  a  new  side -girt  and  a  new 
plate  in  the  outer  wall,  and  the  rafters  now  span  the  whole  house 
with  their  pitch  equal  on  both  sides." 

This  house,  unlike  most  if  not  all  the  others  of  its  period,  was 
not  lengthened  in  early  times  at  the  end  opposite  the  chimney. 
The  new  house  which  was  added  at  that  end  was  built  about  1812, 
with  money  earned,  it  is  said,  by  boarding  the  workmen  who  built 
the  dam  and  mill  just  above  at  Allendale.  It  has  under  it  a  cel- 
lar connecting  with  that  which  extends  under  the  eastern  half  of 
the  older  building.' 

In  this  building  we  have  reached  the  final  form  of  the  early 
houses.     From  now  to  the  abandonment  of  the  heavy  summer  and 


'  Except  that  the  arrangement  of  the  second  story  summer  in  the  Fenner  house  is  different,  and 
that  the  relation  of  stairs  to  chimney  is  reversed. 

*  Note  the  letters  on  the  posts  in  Plate  37.  They  refer  to  details  in  Plates  56  and  57.  This 
occurs  elsewhere  only  in  the  old  Sayles  house,  on  Westquadomeset  or  Sayles  Hill. 

'  Some  settlement  in  the  foundations  has  curved  the  floor  of  this  house,  as  is  shown  in  the  sec- 
tion (Plate  36). 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    THIRD    PERIOD.  49 

its  small  floor  joists  we  have  the  same  system  as  that  here  before 
us.  A  glance  at  the  dimensions  of  this  house,  one  of  the  largest 
which  has  survived,  and  a  comparison  of  them  with  those  of  the 
Roger  Mowry,  or  even  of  the  Edward  Manton  house,  will  show 
the  changes  which  in  sixty  years  the  increase  of  w^ealth  has  wrought 
in  the  colony. 

II.     The  Benjamin  Waterman  House. 

In  Plate  39  we  give  a  plan  of  the  so-called  "Nick  Waterman" 
house,  which  stands  in  Johnston  on  the  cross-road  between  Hughes- 
dale  and  the  Hartford  Pike.  It  is  in  the  valley  of  the  Pocasset, 
perhaps  two  miles  above  Captain  Arthur  Fenner's  Castle,  and 
under  the  lee  of  the  hill  which  lies  parallel  with  Neutaconkanut, 
about  two  miles  from  the  latter.  It  was  probably  built  by  Benja- 
min  Waterman,  about   1 700. 

In  this  plan,  as  in  the  others,  the  original  work  is  in  full  black, 
while  the  later  additions  and  changes  are  only  cross-hatched.  It 
will  be  seen,  then,  that  the  stone  portion  at  the  west  on  the  plan 
(shown  also  in  Plate  38)  is  later  than  the  rest  of  the  house,  which, 
as  the  section  will  show,  was  built  like  the  Field  house,  with  a 
lean-to.  Indeed  the  resemblance  of  this  house  to  the  Field  house 
is  very  marked,  as  a  comparison  of  the  drawings  of  the  two  will 
prove.  The  workmanship,  however,  of  this  house  is  better,  and 
it  never  had  any  western  extension.  Its  chimney,  like  that  of  the 
Field  house,  is  of  stone  up  to  the  level  of  the  second  story.  Above 
that  it  is  of  brick,  and  shows  the  same  blue  headers  which  we  met 
in  the  Olney  house.  This  artistic  use  of  these  brick,  which  are 
very  large,  about  four  inches  by  nine,  and  two  and  a  half  inches 
thick,  shows   that   this  was  built  as  an  outside  chimney,  and   that 


50  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

the  tradition  as  to  the  later  date  of  the  western  addition  is  to  be 
relied  on. 

Only  the  side  walls  of  the  first  story  have  been  plastered  in 
this  house,  and  the  summer  and  its  joists  still  show  in  the  room. 
The  side -girts,  which  have  not  been  cased,  are  cut  into  over  the 
window  heads,  as  in  the  Mowry  house  above  its  ancient  doorway 
( Plate  5 ).  Here,  however,  the  arrangement  is  probably  an  after- 
thought. In  the  second  story  the  floor  is  laid  in  two  thicknesses. 
There  is  sheathing  instead  of  plaster  in  the  attic,  and  the  rafters 
(Plate  55)  and  the  collar  beams,  which  appear  in  the  room,  are 
framed  as  no  other  work  is  framed  that  is  now  standing  in  Rhode 
Island.  The  ruined  lean-to  of  the  Fenner  Castle  alone  could 
show  anything  equal  to  it.  They  are  planed  and  chamfered,  and 
their  joints  are  close  and  true  even  now. 

Although  the  plans  and  sections  of  this  house  show  that  it  is 
a  survival  in  this  period  of  an  older  scheme,  that  it  is  quite  unlike 
the  Olney  house,  and,  as  we  have  just  said,  very  much  like  the 
Field  homestead,  it  yet  has  a  striking  peculiarity  which  distin- 
guishes it  from  the  earlier  mansion.  The  use  of  brick  in  the 
chimney  does  not  make  the  difference,  for  the  upper  part  of  the 
Field  chimney  was  very  likely  original.  But  in  the  second  story 
(Plates  40  and  41,  also  Plate  55),  at  the  north  side  of  the  chim- 
ney, the  side  opposite  to  the  old  staircase,  which  was  no  doubt 
where  the  passage  or  entry  is  into  which  the  outside  door  now 
opens,  are  what  remain  of  the  studs  of  the  old  gable,  for  here  the 
chimney  does  not  fill  the  whole  space  up  to  the  rafters  on  this 
side.  There  is  nothing  unusual  in  this  use  of  studding,  which  was 
the  regular  way  of  filling  the  old  Providence  gables.  What  is 
unusual  about  this  example  of  it,  however,  what  is  in  fact  unique 
in  this  part  of  the  colony,  is  that  the  clapboards  are  nailed  to  the 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    THIRD    PERIOD.  51 

studs  without  any  intermediate  boarding.  Again,  the  walls  in  the 
first  story,  which  are  plastered,  are  not  lathed  on  the  outside 
boarding,  but  on  studs  which  run  from  sill  to  girt,  and  which 
probably,  as  the  measurements  seem  to  show,  have  the  clapboards 
nailed  directly  to  them,  as  in  the  gable.  That  is  to  say,  we  have 
here  an  abandonment  of  the  regular  Providence  system  of  vertical 
boarding,  and  the  adoption  of  the  studs  covered  with  clapboards, 
which  were  in  fashion  in  Connecticut.  Why  an  example  of  this 
construction  should  occur  here,  where  everything  else  shows  so 
little  trace  of  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut  influence,  and  so  much 
stubborn  individuality,  was  to  us  a  riddle  until  we  examined  the 
Greene  house,  at  Buttonwoods,  which  we  shall  describe  a  little 
later. 

Ill,     The  John  Crawford  House. 

On  the  west  side  of  North  Main  street,  the  old  "Towne  Street" 
of  Providence,  near  the  corner  of  Mill  street,  stands  the  house  which 
Gideon  Crawford  probably  built  for  his  son  John  when  the  latter 
was  married,  in  17 15.  The  level  of  the  street  has  been  raised  so 
that  the  door  from  the  sidewalk  opens  into  the  second  story.  On 
the  side  of  the  house  toward  the  river  its  original  height  can  be 
seen. 

The  plan  of  this  building  is  almost  identical,  except  for  the  po- 
sition of  the  original  stairs  at  the  right  instead  of  the  left  of  the 
chimney,  with  that  of  the  Olney  house.  Here,  however,  as  in  the 
Greene  house,  the  chimney  is  entirely  of  brick,  and  it  is  the  oldest 
example  on  the  old  "Towne  Street"  of  the  use  of  that  material.' 
The  bricks  were  probably  made  in  Providence.     They  are  about  2 

'  Neither  the  Field  nor  the  Olney  house  was  in  the  "Towne  Street." 


52  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

inches  thick,  4  inches  wide  and  8  inches  long,  and  are  laid  in 
alternate  courses  of  headers  and  stretchers.  No  blue  headers  ap- 
pear.' The  chimney  ends  in  a  triple  stack  which  recalls  old  Eng- 
lish work.  The  course  of  headers  as  dentils  under  the  string  below 
the  separate  flues  can  be  very  closely  matched  in  the  old  country.' 
The  old  house  is  interesting  for  more  than  its  chimney  or  its 
framing.  It  is  a  landmark,  because  we  can  date  it  very  closely,  and 
it  is  the  last  Providence  house  in  which  we  shall  see  the  ancient 
summer,  with  its  chamfered  edge  and  its  small  clean-cut  floor  joists. 
We  know  this  because  we  have  another  landmark,  the  brick  house 
in  the  Butler  Hospital  grounds,  at  the  turn  of  the  road,  near  Swan 
Point.  This  was  built  in  1730.'  Its  chimney  is  at  one  end,  but 
the  two  fireplaces  have  been  brought  together,  so  that  the  main 
room  and  that  which  was  in  the  Crawford  house  a  smaller  one  at 
the  side  are  equal,  and  the  fireplaces  are  in  the  corners,  while  the 
old  summer  has  disappeared.  It  still  exists  in  the  ceiling,  but  it 
is  no  deeper  than  the  floor  joists,  which  are  now  larger  than  of 
old,  and  it  is  plastered  over  flush  with  them.  Head  room  has  been 
gained,  and  the  new  fashion  of  plastering  has  made  the  room  look 
more  "elegant"  perhaps.  No  doubt  it  has  made  it  warmer.  The 
old  deep  beam,  the  mark  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  honored 
sign  of  colonial  date,  has  been  improved  away,  and  with  its  dis- 
appearance, which  occurs  between  the  dates  of  these  two  houses, 
the  last  period  of  early  colonial  architecture  in  Rhode  Island  comes 
to  an  end.' 


'  The  whole  chimney  except  the  top  has  been  painted,  so  that  there  may  have  been  blue  headers 
below  the  roof  lines. 

''  There  is  a  stack  at  Tenbury,  in  England,  which  is  almost  exactly  like  the  one  under  discus- 
sion, except  that  it  has  two  flues  instead  of  three. 

^According  to  documents  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  S.  S.  Rider,  of  Providence.  See  Chapter  L 
of  this  book. 

*  Note  the  letters  at  the  posts  on  the  plan,  they  refer  to  details  in  Plate  58. 


THE    HOUSES    OF    THE    THIRD    PERIOD.  53 

IV.     The  James  Greene  House. 

This,  the  best  known  house  in  the  State,  stands  on  a  little 
stream  which  runs  into  the  head  of  Brush  Neck  Cove,  in  Button- 
woods.  The  top  of  the  chimney  and  the  rather  low  pitched  roof, 
which  can  be  seen  in  Plate  47,  are  new.  The  rest  of  the  house 
was  built  almost  exactly  as  we  see  it  today,  somewhere  about 
1 71 5.'  The  wood -shed  against  the  chimney,  and  the  lean-to  on 
the  north,  are  the  only  additions  the  house  has  received. 

The  plan  of  this  dwelling  is  like  that  of  the  Olney  house,  ex- 
cept that  the  chimney  is  wholly  of  brick.  The  original  stairs  too 
exist,  and  are  in  the  corner  diagonally  opposite  to  that  in  which 
we  generally  expect  them  (see  Plate  48).  That  they  are  original 
is  proved  by  the  narrow  stone  stairway  descending  to  the  cellar 
under  them.  It  is  on  this  cellar  stairway  that  can  best  be  seen 
the  studs  of  the  outer  wall,  with  the  filling  of  brick'  between 
them.  This,  then,  like  the  Waterman  house,  has  studded  walls; 
and  here,  too,  where  the  old  clapboarding  remains  in  the  north- 
east corner,  as  we  can  see  in  the  second  story  of  the  lean-to,  the 
clapboards  are  nailed  directly  to  the  studs.  Where  we  can  see  the 
inside  of  this  old  clapboarded  portion  of  the  wall,  on  the  stairs  at 
the  third  floor  level,  we  find  it  simply  daubed  with  plaster,  without 
any  brick  filling.  The  east  end  of  the  house  is  at  present  boarded 
outside  of  the  brick  filling,  but  this  boarding  was  put  on  at  the 
same  time  as  the  new  clapboards  with  which  the  whole  house,  ex- 
cept where  hidden  by  the  lean-tos,  seems  to  be  covered. 


'  It  seems  to  us  that  the  date  assigned  by  tradition  to  this  house,  1687,  really  applies  to  the 
earlier  one,  of  which  the  site  is  still  pointed  out,  and  that  this  building  cannot  be  earlier  than  the 
date  we  give.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  was  built  not  by  James  Greene,  but  by  Fones 
Greene  his  grandson. 

■^  Some  of  these  bricks  are  crumbly,  and  appear  almost  as  if  sun-dried,  though  of  darker  eolor. 


54  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

Now  none  of  this  work  resembles  the  general  type  which  pre- 
vailed in  Providence,'  but  it  does,  as  far  as  the  stud  system  goes, 
resemble  some  of  the  work  in  South  County,  which  in  turn  was 
copied  from  originals  at  Newport.  Again,  the  stone  stairs  to 
the  cellar  are  unknown  in  Providence  so  far  as  we  have  observed, 
but  not  rare  in  South  County  and  Newport,  while  the  sawed 
balusters  over  the  door -heads  are  exactly  like  those  found  in  the 
two  southern  colonies.  Notice  further  the  fireplaces  on  the  plan 
(Plate  48),  and  observe  the  straight  sides,  not  splayed  at  all  as  are 
all  those  we  have  heretofore  seen,  and  the  rounded  corners.  These 
rounded  corners  occur  in  the  Spencer  house,'  in  Newport,  and  the 
coincidence  is  striking  to  say  the  least.  If  we  consider  all  these 
Newport  ear -marks,"  it  will  be  hard  to  resist  the  conclusion  that 
some  Newport  craftsmen  wrought  this  house.*  The  studs  of  the 
Waterman  house,  though  we  can  so  far  only  suspect  the  existence 
of  brick  in  them,  seem  also  to  point  to  the  hand  of  an  Aquidneck 
carpenter. 


'  This  house  was  in  Gorton's  purchase  of  Warwick.     The  plan  is  of  the  Providence  type. 

*  See  Chapter  V. 

^  The  walls  of  some  of  the  houses  in  Newport  are  no  doubt  filled  with  brick. 

*  The  old  homestead  has  never  been  out  of  the  Greene  family.  The  present  owner,  Mr.  Henry 
W.  Greene,  courteously  shows  the  house  to  visitors.  He  has  preserved  the  main  fireplace  intact,  with 
the  hangers  used  before  cranes  were  made. 


CHAPTER    V. 


NEWPORT. 


JS  we  have  said  already,  the  early  colonial  architecture  of 
Newport  differs  considerably  from  that  of  Providence. 
The  type  of  house  with  the   end  chimney,  which,  as  we 


have  seen,  prevailed  to  the  exclusion  of  any  other  in  the  northern 
colony,  does  appear  in  the  Island  settlement ;  but  it  had  to  dispute 
supremacy  with  the  central  chimney  type  which  belongs  to  Con- 
necticut, and,  if  both  styles  have  survived  in  the  same  proportion, 
the  latter  must  have  been  victorious.  There  are  at  least  three 
houses  in  Newport  of  early  date  with  end  chimneys.  There  are 
more  than  double  that  number  with  central  chimneys  which  can 
claim  to  be  ancient. 

Although  King  Philip's  War  passed  by  the  Island,  so  that  we 
are  not  prevented  by  traditions  of  burning  from  carrying  the  date 
of  a  house  far  back  into  the  seventeenth  century,  yet  unfortunately, 
for  some  reason  or  other,  the  numerous  old  houses  in  Newport  are 
of  so  late  a  period  that  it  is  more  difficult  even  than  in  Providence 
to  say  of  what  sort  the  earliest  houses  were.  The  late  George  C. 
Mason  in  his  work,  ''  Reminiscences  of  Newport,"  gives  a  view  of 


'Page  138.  The  date  is  given  by  H.  C.  Dorr,  "  The  Planting  and  Growth  of  Providence" 
p.  27,  as  1650.  This  view  is  taken  apparently  from  the  same  source  as  that  in  Palfrey's  ^'  New  Eng- 
land."' 


56  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

the  Governor  Coddington  house,  now  destroyed,  which  stood  on 
Marlborough  street.  If  the  date  assigned  to  this  house — 1641 — is 
authentic,  we  might  reason  from  it  that  the  end  chimney  type  to 
which  it  belongs  was  at  least  as  early  as  the  other.  If  it  is  so 
early,  then  the  other  might  reasonably  be  considered  as  the  later 
type,  and  as  the  result  of  the  increase  of  wealth  brought  about  by 
the  trade  of  the  port. 

Against  this  view  might  be  brought  what  is  said  to  be  the 
oldest  house  in  the  State,  the  Governor  Henry  Bull  house  on 
Spring  street,'  for  which  the  date  is  given  as  1 638-1 640.  But  it 
is  almost  certain  that  very  little  of  that  house  as  it  stands  goes 
back  to  the  date  assumed,  if,  indeed,  any  of  it  does.  Tradition, 
indeed,  asserts  that  the  southern  end  of  the  building,  that  at  the 
top  of  the  plan  (which  we  give  in  Plate  49),  is  the  older.  This 
statement  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  the  summer  runs,  Salem- 
fashion,  across  the  room,  as  the  plan  will  show.  It  will  be  noticed, 
however,  that  this  summer  does  not  reach  the  outer  wall  on  the 
east,  but  is  framed  into  a  girt  several  feet  away  from  that  wall. 
That  means  either  that  the  eastern  wall  at  the  south  end  of  the 
building  was  original,  or  that  there  was  on  the  line  of  that  girt  an 
earlier  stone  wall  which  was  taken  down  to  enlarge  the  house,  or 
that  the  wall  on  that  side  was  once  of  wood.  We  hesitate  be- 
tween the  first  view  and  the  last,  though  we  think  that  the  Gov- 
ernor Carr  house,  which  till  recently  stood  on  Conanicut  Island, 
would  bear  out  the  last  opinion.'' 

If  we  adopt  the  last  view,  we  must  say  that  the  whole  eastern 
and  northern  stone  wall  of  the  house  is  late,  and  so  is  the  wooden 

'  Number  20,  near  the  northern  end  of  the  street. 

■^  See  Mason,  quoted  above,  page  407.  The  house  was  ruinous  and  was  recently  rebuilt.  It  is 
nothing  like  its  original  form. 


NEWPORT.  57 

part  of  the  west  wall,  and  the  stone  part  of  this  nearly  to  the 
door.  The  chimney  in  the  room  where  the  two  summers  cross 
each  other — a  late  and  uncommon  arrangement  —  is  probably  quite 
modern,  though  this  room  is  no  doubt  older  than  the  eastern  wall; 
and  almost  certainly  the  other  chimney,  though  quite  old,  is  not 
the  original  one,  which  was  of  stone,  and,  as  in  the  Governor  Carr 
house,  formed  part  if  not  all  of  the  north  end  of  the  house.  The 
present  gambrel  roof  replaced  an  older  roof  of  the  same  form, 
which  itself  replaced  the  original  sharp -pitched  covering. 

If  we  hold  to  the  first  opinion,  we  still  assume  a  stone  chim- 
ney with  a  strip  of  wall  between  it  and  the  eastern  side,  and  this 
wall  may  have  been  either  of  stone  or  of  wood.  Any  attempt, 
however,  to  restore  this  house  is  rendered  very  difificult  and  unsatis- 
factory by  the  changes  which  must  certainly  have  been  made, 
though  they  are  almost  impossible  to  trace. 

If,  then,  the  end -chimney  type  was  what  the  early  settlers  of 
Newport  brought  with  them,  it  survived  well  down  into  the  early 
eighteenth  century,  as  did  its  counterpart  in  Providence.  On  the 
corner  of  Marlborough  and  Duke  streets  stands  a  house  with  an 
end-chimney  of  stone.  It  is  late  in  date,  perhaps  1670-80,  and  the 
roof  on  the  side  toward  Marlborough  street  has  been  raised.  Other- 
wise it  greatly  resembles  the  Arnold  house,  at  Moshassuck.  An- 
other house  on  Duke  street  is  also  of  this  type,  though,  as  the 
chimney  is  of  brick,  it  is  probably  later  than  the  other.  Further 
up  Marlborough  —  one  has  to  go  a  little  down  Branch  street  to 
see  the  house  well  —  is  a  dwelling  with  a  fine  pilastered  brick 
chimney  at  one  end. 

The  main  interest  of  Newport,  however,  is  in  the  fact,  which 
we  have  often  reiterated,  that  very  many  of  its  old  houses,  built 
towards   the  end   of  the   seventeenth  century  or  early  in   the  eigh- 


58  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

teenth,  have  a  central  chimney.  There  is  one  house — the  Sueton 
Grant  —  with  a  stone  chimney,  all  the  others,  and  there  are  several, 
have  chimneys  of  brick. 

The  Sueton  Grant  house  stands  in  Hammett's  court,  about  a 
hundred  feet  back  from  Thames  street.  It  was  once  owned  by  the 
famous  Newport  merchant  whose  name  it  now  bears,  though  he 
can  hardly  have  built  it,  for  he  came  hither  from  Scotland  in 
1725,  and  the  house  is  at  least  fifty  years  older  than  that  date,  and 
possibly  more.  We  have  selected  it  for  special  study  as  a  type  of 
the  imported  Newport  house,  because  it  is  probably  the  oldest  of 
that  type  now  standing,  and  because,  unlike  any  other  house  now 
standing  in  the  State,  so  far  as  known  to  us,  it  retains  the  over- 
hang. 

The  house  originally  consisted,  as  the  blacked  part  of  the  plan 
(Plate  50)  shows,  of  two  rooms,  one  on  each  side  of  a  large  stone 
chimney,  within  which  the  stairs  are  built,  and  at  the  back  of 
which  was  the  fireplace  of  the  lean-to  kitchen.  The  summers  in 
both  stories  were  lengthwise  of  the  house,  from  the  end -girt,  that 
is,  to  the  chimney -girt.  The  outside  walls  are  studded,  no  doubt, 
and  thus  thickened  to  make  room  for  shutters  in  some  of  the 
rooms." 

The  arrangement  of  the  stairs  is  peculiar.  The  two  piers  at 
each  side  of  the  flight  come  together  above  the  stairs  in  the  sec- 
ond story.  Under  the  stairs  in  the  first  story  are  the  steps  to  the 
cellar,  which  is  very  interesting,  for  the  foundation  of  the  huge 
chimney  instead  of  being  a  square  mass  of  stone,  is  cut  into  'on 
three  sides  by  deep  recesses,  which  are  arched  over  to  support  the 
masonry  above  them.      The  recess  on  the  fourth  side  is  occupied 

'  The  walls  are  very  likely  filled  with  brick.  , 


NEWPORT.  59 

by  the  stairs  from  the  first  story.  We  more  than  suspect  that 
these  arches  were  turned  by  the  same  mason  who  built  the  Old 
Stone  Mill.  This  arrangement  occurs  outside  of  Newport  only,  so 
far  as  we  know,  in  the  Lippitt  house  in  old  Warwick,  of  which 
the  chimney  is  of  brick. 

In  the  garret  the  principal  rafters  of  the  old  trusses  remain  in 
the  end  walls,  and  in  the  side  toward  the  street,  showing  that  the 
lower  pitch  of  the  gambrel,  on  Hammett's  court,  is  original.  The 
patches  made  by  filling  up  the  roof,  when  the  original  gables  on 
the  front  were  removed,  are  also  plainly  to  be  seen.  As  the  res- 
toration shows,  the  original  roof  was  a  high  gambrel,  with  a  very 
narrow  and  flat  upper  roof.  The  authority  for  this  restoration  is 
the  relation  of  the  original  rafters  to  the  old  water-tables  on  the 
chimney.     This  was,  no  doubt,  one  of  the  oldest  gambrels. 

How  common  the  overhang  was  in  ancient  Newport,  we  have 
now  no  means  of  knowing.  The  Governor  Coddington  house  had 
one,  according  to  the  published  drawing'  of  it,  which  seems  to  have 
been  a  copy  of  a  sketch  made  before  the  house  was  pulled  down 
in  1835.  An  old  cut  of  the  Paine  house  on  Conanicut  Island, 
long  since  destroyed,  gives  that  an  overhang.  It  was  very  common 
— probably  almost  universal  —  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  as 
old  prints,  and  old  examples  still  standing,  testify.'  Very  likely  it 
was  also  the  prevailing  method  of  building  in  Newport.  Whether 
it  was  or  not,  this  single  instance  in  the  Sueton  Grant  house  is 
all  that  has  actually  come  down  to  us.  In  this  case  the  over- 
hang seems  to  have  existed  only  on  the  front  and  only  in  the 
second  story.      In  Connecticut  and  in   Massachusetts,  overhangs  in 


'First  published  in   Palfrey's  ''History  of  New  England,''  Vol.  II..  p.  62. 

'  These  overhangs  were  a  tradition  of   Mediaeval  and  Elizabethan  England.     It  is   hardly  neces- 
sary to  say  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  Indian  fighting. 


60  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

gables  exist  in  the  same  house  with  that  on  the  front.  In  Provi- 
dence, too,  the  overhanging  gable  is  quite  common  —  but  it  is  late, 
and  did  not  exist,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  in  the  ancient 
houses. 

Of  the  other  dwellings,  the  Spencer  house,  on  the  west  side  of 
Thames  street,  just  north  of  Marlborough,  is  interesting  for  its  fine 
chimney,  which  still  shows  above  the  present  gambrel  the  marks  of 
the  original  steep  roof.  The  fireplace  in  the  north  room  —  which 
has  two  summers  crossing  each  other  in  the  ceiling  —  has  the 
rounded  corners  which  we  noticed  in  the  Greene  house  at  Button- 
woods.  In  the  cellar  the  chimney  is  carried  on  two  piers  with  an 
arch,  or  rather  a  tunnel -vault,  between  them.  The  house  is  of  a 
late  date  —  probably  as  far  down  as   1720-25. 

The  Wanton  house,  on  West  Broadway,  is  probably  of  the  same 
time.  It  has  as  fine  a  chimney,  and  retains  the  sharp  pitched  roof 
on  the  side  toward  the  street. 

A  little  later,  perhaps,  even  than  these  is  the  Arnold  house 
{})  on  Hammett's  wharf,  which  is  probably  about  the  last  example 
in  Newport  of  the  use  of  the  summer.  Here  the  logic  of  the 
carpenter  led  to  an  interesting  result.  He  saw  that  the  beams  had 
been  altogether  too  heavy  for  the  work  required  of  them.  So,  as 
he  had  two  rooms  side  by  side  on  each  side  of  the  chimney,  sep- 
arated by  a  partition  under  the  second  summer,  as  in  the  Eleazer 
Arnold  house  in  Providence,  he  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  put 
a  post  under  this  second  summer,  but  framed  it  into  the  end -girt 
exactly  as  he  did  the  main  summer.  In  the  west  end  of  the  house, 
therefore,  which  was  the  only  one  which  could  be  examined  on  the 
first  floor,  there  are  only  two  posts  —  those  at  the  corners  of  the 
building. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


NARRAGANSETT. 


HE  name  Narragansett  applied  in  general  to  the  southern 
mainland  of  the  State  below  the  present  town  of  Coven- 
try. It  was  the  country  of  the  tribe  from  which  it  took 
its  name;  but  —  because  the  white  inhabitants  were  at  first  only  a 
handful  —  to  go  to  Narragansett  meant  to  go  to  Richard  Smith's 
trading  post  near  the  present  town  of  Wickford. 

One  of  the  oldest  roads  in  the  State,  the  Narragansett  trail,  or 
Pequot  path,  as  it  was  called,  runs  from  Providence  through  Pon- 
tiac,  Apponaug,  East  Greenwich  and  Belleville,  a  mile  or  so  west 
of  Wickford,  down  along  Tower  Hill,  and  then,  making  a  great 
curve  to  the  westward,  skirts  the  Atlantic  shore  and  passes  on  in- 
to Westerly,  Stonington  and  New  London.  It  is  along  this  path, 
the  "  Old  Post  Road,"  that  we  find  the  greater  part  of  the  inter- 
esting houses  of  South  County.  It  was  on  this  ancient  highway, 
close  to  the  shore  of  the  cove  just  north  of  the  present  harbor  of 
Wickford  that  Richard  Smith  put  up  "  in  the  thickets  of  the  bar- 
barians, the  first  English  house  amongst  them." ' 

Smith  seems  to  have  used  his  house  at  Cocumscussuc  —  as  the 
land  he  had  purchased  was  called  —  only  as  a  trading  post  until 
1659.     About  this  original  house  we  know  almost  nothing,  though 

'^Letters  of  Roger    Williams,  Narr.  Club  Pub.,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  399. 


62  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

traditions  not  few  have  been  handed  down  about  it.  The  timber 
is  said  to  have  been  floated  from  Taunton,  where  Smith  Hved  for 
a  time.  The  site  of  it  is  said  to  have  been  a  few  rods  southwest 
of  the  present  house  and  partly  over  Cocumscussuc  brook,  which 
runs  through  the  farm.  Again,  it  is  said  to  have  been  a  block 
house;  and  this  may  very  likely  have  been  true.  Certain  it  is  that 
it  served  as  a  rendezvous  for  the  colonial  army  during  the  campaign 
which  ended  in  the  Swamp  Fight.  To  this  day  the  spot  where 
were  buried  the  soldiers  killed  in  that  bloody  action  is  shown  to 
the  visitor.  This  small  plot  of  ground  is  covered  with  grass  which 
the  cattle  will  not  touch,  strangely  enough,  as  it  is  the  famous 
"  blue  grass  "  of   Kentucky. 

The  infuriated  Indians  burned  the  trading  houses  soon  after 
their  defeat  in  the  Swamp  ;  and,  in  1680,  Richard  Smith,  the 
Younger,  constructed  the  present  building  partly  from  the  materials 
of  the  old  "garrison."  We  give  in  Plate  52  a  plan  of  this  house. 
As  will  be  seen  at  once,  it  is  almost  exactly  like  the  Sueton  Grant 
house  in  Newport.  The  walls,  which  in  the  first  story  at  least  are 
quite  thick,  are  no  doubt  filled  with  brick.  We  did  not  discover 
whether  the  chimney  was  of  stone  below  the  attic  floor.  Above 
that  floor  it  is  of  brick,  but  is  probably  new,  for  the  whole  roof  is 
later  than  the  original  house.  There  were  gables  on  the  front  of 
the  house,  it  is  said,  but  there  seems  to  have  been  no  overhang. 

In  each  of  the  large  rooms  of  the  house  there  are,  as  the  plan 
will  show,  two  summers  crossing  each  other  at  right  angles.  The 
summer  which  carries  the  joists  is  that  which  runs  from  the  end- 
girt  to  the  chimney -girt,  parallel,  that  is,  to  the  front  of  the  house. 
The  other  was  probably  put  in  for  ornament,  as  ■  it,  with  the  first, 
divided  the  ceiling  into  four  large  squares.  This  arrangement  is 
poor  constructively,  as  the  beams  have  either  to  be  halved  together 


NARRAGANSETT.  63 

in  the  centre,  or  tenoned  —  the  first  into  the  second.  As  all  the 
beams  are  cased,  this  cross  summer  might  be  considered  a  mere 
built-up  affair  of  thin  pine  boards;  but  we  meet  the  same  arrange- 
ment at  Newport,  in  the  Spencer  house,  where  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  genuineness  of  the  beams.  This  last  example,  also, 
by  the  bolt  —  the  head  of  which  appears  below  the  intersection  of 
the  summers  —  gives  convincing  testimony  to  the  danger  of  this 
kind  of  framing.  No  symptoms  of  such  trouble,  however,  occur  in 
the  Smith  house. 

One  of  these  large  rooms  must  have  been  the  "hall"  mentioned 
in  the  inventory  of  Richard  Smith,  Junior,  in  1692.  This  docu- 
ment specifies  the  goods  contained  in  the  following  buildings  and 
rooms :  "  warehouse,  shop,  kitchen  in  great  house,  store  house  cham- 
ber, hall,  dairy  room,  kitchen  chamber,  porch  chamber,  hall  cham- 
ber, lean-to  chamber,  etc.,  etc."* 

Of  these,  the  kitchen,  hall,  kitchen  chamber,  porch  chamber, 
hall  chamber,  lean-to  chamber,  and  possibly  the  dairy  room,  belong 
in  this  house.  The  evidence  of  the  cellar  wall,  which  shows  very 
plainly  where  the  new  excavations  which  have  been  made  have  ex- 
posed the  back  of  the  old  foundation  wall,  has  been  relied  on  for 
the  statement  of  the  drawing  that  the  room  at  the  north-east  is 
an  addition.  Under  what  we  have  assumed  to  be  the  original  wall 
of  the  house  on  the  north-west  there  is  now  no  wall  in  the  cellar 
and  no  signs  of  any  jointing  in  the  chimney  foundation.  A  large 
beam  spans,  in  the  cellar,  the  distance  from  the  outer  stone  wall 
to  the  chimney,  and,  as  the  post  shown  in  the  northwest  wall 
stands  upon  this  stick,  it  seemed  to  us  that  it  was  the  original  sill 
of  the  house,  and  that  the  room  on  the  northwest  was  also  an  ad- 

'  Austin,  Genealogical  Dictionary  of  Rhode  Island,  p.  185.  The  inventory  is  recorded  in  Bos- 
ton Probate  Office,  Suffolk,  XIII.,  29.      Op  Dyck  Genealogy,  p.  82. 


64  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

dition.  It  may  not  be,  however;  and,  again,  both  it  and  the  room 
in  the  northeast  may  have  been  added  before  Smith's  death  in 
1691 ;  at  any  rate,  it  is  very  difficult  to  make  the  inventory  fit  the 
house,  to  which  there  can  be  no  doubt  it  refers. 

The  cellar  is  quite  interesting.  Some  of  the  stones  in  the  walls 
of  it  are  very  large  bowlders  split  in  two,  with  clear  division  sur- 
faces. The  foundation  of  the  chimney,  as  the  plan  will  show,  is 
extremely  large.  The  original  steps  to  the  cellar,  under  the  front 
stairs,  are  of  stone  as  in  the  Grant  house,  Newport,  and  in  some 
other  houses  in  Narragansett.  This  house,  the  oldest  in  the  South 
County,  shows  the  influence  of  Newport  in  the  plainest  manner. 
It  is  a  house  of  the  Connecticut  fashion,  like  most  of  those  now 
standing  in  the  Aquidneck  colony.  We  shall  meet  many  like  it  in 
the  Narragansett  country,  though  with  none  so  large  nor  so  fine. 
Nor  have  any  other  houses,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  crossed  sum- 
mers which  mark  this  house  as  one  of  a  class  rare  in  all  New 
England. 

Opposite  the  Smith  house,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Post  Road, 
stands  a  very  old  house  with  a  stone  chimney,  a  veritable  stone - 
end  house,  it  seems,  of  the  Providence  type.  It  is  known  as  the 
Palmer  Northup  house.  Further  deponent  saith  not.  Were  it  not 
that  we  should  be  promptly  confronted  with  the  fire-brands  of 
King  Philip's  War  we  should  say  that  this  was  the  very  house 
which  Roger  Williams  deeded  to  Richard  Smith  when  he  sold  to 
him  his  trading  post  and  his  two  big  guns,  or  "murderers,"  to  ob- 
tain money  wherewith  to  go  to  England  after  the  charter. 

About  a  mile  further  north,  on  the  same  side  of  the  Post  Road 
as  this  house,  that  is,  the  west  side,  stands  an  old  chimney  which 
once  formed  the  outside  of  a  small  house  belonging  to  some  family 
of  Browns. 


NARRAGANSETT. 


65 


In  Belleville,  still  on  the  Post  Road,  stands  the  Phillips  house, 
known  as  "  Mowbra  Castle."  It  was  probably  built  about  1695- 
1700  by  Michael  Phillips,  who  came  from  Newport.  Its  plan 
somewhat  resembles  that  of  the  Arnold  house  at  Moshassuck,  but 
the  chimney  is  nearly  square,  and  the  fireplace  in  the  side  room  is 
at  an  angle  of  ninety  degrees  with  that  in  the  main  room. 

On  the  Post  Road,  below  Wakefield,  toward  the  road  to  Matu- 
nuc,  stands  the  Watson  or  Congdon  house,  with  a  stone  chimney 
in  the  centre.  It  may  date  back  to  1690-1700;  it  is  framed  of 
cedar,  and  the  summer  runs  Massachusetts  fashion,  that  is,  across 
the  room,  parallel  with  the  chimney-girt.  This  is  the  case,  also, 
with  the  Robert  Hazard  house  in  Charlestown,  near  the  Champlin 
farm.  Here  there  either  is  no  .fireplace  in  the  room  which  con- 
tains the  summer,  or  it  has  been  filled  in  with  stone.  The  date 
of  this  house  is  perhaps  171 5.  Its  chimney  is  of  stone  up  to  the 
roof. 

The  General  Stanton  house  consists  of  three  parts,  a  Connec- 
ticut type  house  with  centre  chimney,  and  with  a  summer  in  each 
room,  an  eastern  addition  to  the  length  of  the  house,  also  contain- 
ing a  summer,  and  a  gambrel  roofed  ell  likewise  with  a  summer. 
This  last  is  probably  the  oldest  portion  of  all.  The  Welcome 
Hoxsie  house,  with  a  centre  chimney,  is  also  interesting,  as  is  the 
Church  house  with  its  stone  chimney  at  the  end  of  the  main  room. 
This  chimney,  however,  is  not  really  an  end  chimney,  for  it  has  a 
fireplace  at  the  back  of  that  in  the  main  room  with  the  summer, 
in  a  one  story  lean-to.  All  these  houses  are  on  the  Post  Road 
except  the  last,  which  is  on  the  road  further  toward  the  shore, 
parallel  with  the  Post  Road  below  Perryville. 

The  only  stone -end  houses  in  all  South  County,  so  far  as  we 
have  explored  or  have   received  trustworthy  reports,  appear  to  be 


66  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

the  two  near  Wickford,  the  Palmer  Northup  house  and  the  Brown 
house,  of  which  only  the  chimney  remains.  Most  of  the  old  chim- 
neys are  stone,  but  they  are  in  the  centre  of  the  house,  or  where, 
as  in  many  cases  they  are  at  the  end,  they  are  covered  by  a  wall 
of  boarding. 

Near  East  Greenwich  are  two  remarkable  houses  which  show 
strong  Newport  influence.  They  are  quite  late  and  somewhat 
peculiar,  having  the  summer  in  one  end  and  not  in  the  other,  and 
a  stone  chimney  in  the  centre.  These  are  the  Coggeshall  house, 
c.  1715-20,  on  the  Post  Road,  a  mile  and  a  half  below  the  village, 
and  the  Payne  house,  c.  17 10-15,  somewhat  nearer  the  village,  on 
a  road  parallel  to  the  Post  Road,  but  further  west.  The  Payne 
house  is  unique  in  having  been  widened  towards  the  front  instead 
of  by  a  lean-to  in  the  rear.  The  Coggeshall  house  has  stone  stairs 
to  the  cellar,  and  the  sawed  balusters  which  are  characteristic  of 
Newport.  The  string  of  the  stairs  has  a  huge  cove  moulding, 
almost  exactly  like  that  in  the  Sueton  Grant'  and  the  Spencer 
houses. 

Down  in  the  Stanton  Purchase,  between  West  Kingston  and 
Shannock,  in  Richmond,  is  the  Stanton  house,  a  good  centre- 
chimney  house,  abandoned  and  going  to  decay.  It  exhibits  a 
mixture  of  rudeness  and  elegance,  which  is  one  of  the  marks  of 
the  Narragansett  country.  Poverty,  especially  in  these  inland  town- 
ships, is  stamped  plainly  upon  the  life  of  the  early  settlers  by  the 
appearance  of  their  dwellings.  Here  and  there  a  house  rises  out 
of  it,  especially  along  the  Post  Road,  which  after  1715  must  have 
been  lined  with  dwellings  about  a  mile  apart,  for  nearly  its  whole 
length. 

'  The  string  is  probably  not  original  in  this  house. 


NARRAGANSETT. 


67 


The  Carmichael  house  at  Shannock  is  a  late  building,  about 
1715-20,  with  a  stone  chimney  at  the  end  of  a  single  room,  though 
the  stone -work  does  not  appear  on  the  outside.  The  summer  and 
beams  are  cased  with  the  upper  edge  of  the  casing  boards  left 
rough  where  they  were  to  be  concealed  by  plaster,  which  was 
never  applied. 

There  does  not  seem  to  be  much  if  any  old  work  in  Westerly 
and  its  northern  neighbors,  though  that  whole  district  waits  further 
exploration. 


-Smith  Ga£ri3QM  Ha-cocunscu-sisuc 


CHAPTER   VII. 


CONSTRUCTION. 


ET  us  now  examine  more  in  detail  the  construction  of 
the  houses  which  we  have  described  in  the  foregoing 
chapters.  In  so  doing  we  shall  take  up  the  principal 
parts  of  the  building,  which  hitherto  we  have  seen  in  relation  to 
the  whole,  and  discuss  them  separately.  The  old  craftsmen's  solu- 
tions of  the  problems  before  them  were  generally  so  simple  and 
logical  that  they  can  hardly  fail  to  be  interesting  even  to  the  un- 
technical  reader. 

I.     Stone-work  and  Brick-work. 

Stone:  —  The  bowlders  and  fragments  of  bowlders  scattered  over 
the  soil  of  the  colony  furnished  the  early  masons  with  a  plentiful 
supply  of  this  material.  These  field  stones  seem  very  often  to  have 
had  at  least  one  naturally  flat  smooth  face,  for  many  of  the  granite 
or  gneiss  bowlders  show  to  this  day  lines  of  cleavage  akin  to  those 
along  which  they  themselves  were  split  off  from  the  original  ledges. 
A  kind  of  sandstone  also  occurs  with  good  faces,  apparently  natu- 
ral. These  stones  had  long  ago  deposited  their  water  of  crystalli- 
zation, or  "sap,"  and  thus  had  acquired  a  sort  of  outer  crust  or  skin 
which    resisted   fire   splendidly,  something   which    modern    quarried 


CONSTRUCTION.  69 

granite  will  not  always  do.  It  is  certain,  therefore,  that  in  the  fire- 
places, at  least,  the  old  masons  used  the  field  stones  as  they  found 
them.  In  Providence  they  selected  the  stone  quite  carefully,  while 
in  South  County  they  do  not  seem  always  to  have  wanted  a  flat 
face,  but  to  have  been  content  in  some  instances  with  round  stones. 

We  do  not  know  how  much  quarrying  the  colonists  did  in 
Rhode  Island.  They  may  have  used  somewhat  the  out -cropping 
ledges  of  granite,  but  it  is  probable  that  they  contented  themselves 
mostly  with  breaking  up  the  bowlders  at  hand  when  they  could  not 
find  flat -faced  fragments.  For  the  fact  that  many  walls  are  built 
of  split  stone  is  almost  incontestible.  Some  of  the  surfaces  are 
marvellous,  and  show  that  the  old  craftsmen  knew  accurately  the 
cleavage  lines  of  the  stone.  They  seem  to  have  possessed  only  the 
heavy  mason's  hammer,'  for  none  of  the  faces,  so  far  as  we  have 
observed,  show  any  marks  of  the  drill  or  of  the  chisel,  yet  the 
stones  in  the  Arthur  Fenner  cellar  can  hardly  have  been  picked 
up  in  their  present  condition  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and 
look  like  blocks  quarried  along  the  cleavage  lines.  Often  we  find 
stones  which  show  an  irregular  fracture,  as  if  they  were  broken  by 
a  heavy  blow.  Sometimes  we  find  bowlders  of  conglomerate,  "pud- 
ding stone,"  split  as  smooth  as  if  sawn  apart,  and  yet  with  no  sign 
of  a  tool -mark. 

Foundations  :  —  These,  where  there  were  no  cellars,  were  of 
field  stone  laid  on  the  ground,  without,  probably,  any  trenching, 
since  all  traces  of  them  have  in  some  cases  disappeared.  Where 
there  is  a  cellar  the  work  is  also  of  field  stone,  sometimes  used 
just  as  it  was  picked  up,  sometimes  split,  as  we  have  said  above, 
and  generally,  if  not  always,  laid  in  mortar. 

•  The  inventory  of  Thomas  Olney,  Senior,  presented  Oct.  17,  1682,  mentions  "a  stone  hammer, 
or  small  sledge."     Early  Records,  Vol.   VI.,  p.   94. 


70  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

The  Chimney  was  built  of  stone  until  about  1700.  The  best 
stones  were  used  in  the  fire -room  and  on  the  outside  of  the  build- 
ing. Small  stones  were  used  for  filling,  and  many  rough  stones 
were  used  under  cover.  Sometimes  part  of  the  inside  was  laid 
dry,  as  in  the  Olney  house,  but  in  most  cases  mortar  is  used  in- 
side and  out.' 

The  fireplaces  are  very  large,  9  or  10  feet  in  width  and  from 
2  ^  to  3  feet  in  depth,  with  a  splay  of  about  6  inches  on  each  side. 
The  height  varies  a  little,  but  was  probably  very  nearly  the  height 
of  the  room.  In  the  Field  house  the  under  side  of  the  wooden 
beam,  13  x  14  inches,  over  the  fireplace  opening,  is  level  with  the 
bottom  of  the  beam  which  crosses  the  room  in  front  of  the  fire- 
place. The  original  fireplace  in  the  Fenner  house  was  much 
lower.  All  the  beams  are  of  oak,  with  a  bevel  on  the  back  which 
continues  the  slope  of  the  flue.' 

The  hearths  were  slabs  of  stone,  chosen  for  their  flatness. 

There  were  andirons  at  that  time,  but  we  have  never  encoun- 
tered any  —  except,  perhaps,  in  the  Greene  house,  Buttonwoods  — 
which  seemed  to  go  back  to  those  early  days.  Bars  across  the 
flues,  with  "  trammels "  as  in  the  Greene  house,  served  instead  of 
the  crane  of  later  times.' 

The  old  houses  had  fireplaces  in  one  story  only.  The  second 
period  shows  us  fireplaces  on  the  second  floor. 

'  Some  of  the  bowlders  or  split  stone  used  in  the  fireplaces  may  have  been  of  gneiss,  which  is 
a  good  fire  stone. 

'  This  bevel  on  the  back  of  the  beam  across  the  fireplace  opening  was  always  cut  before  the 
stick  was  put  in  place,  and  was  never  the  result  of  burning,  though  the  blackening  by  years  of  ex- 
posure to  smoke  may  deceive  some  observers. 

^  There  is  a  very  large  crane  in  the  garret  of  the  Eleazer  Arnold  house,  which  evidently  belonged 
in  one  of  the  old  fireplaces,  but  its  date  has  not  been  ascertained.  In  the  Greene  house  at  Button- 
woods  the  fireplace  in  the  main  room  is  as  it  always  was.  The  andirons  here  are  no  doubt  also 
original. 


CONSTRUCTION.  71 

It  is  in  the  cap  of  the  chimney  that  the  old  mason  showed 
whatever  artistic  ability  he  possessed.  The  chimney  starts  at  the 
first  floor  level  as  a  rectangle  nearly  as  long  as  the  width  of  the 
house.  On  the  outside  this  length  is  maintained  till  the  stone- 
work strikes  the  underside  of  the  roof,  the  pitch  of  which  it  then 
follows.  On  the  inside  the  chimney  narrows  as  it  rises,  leaving  the 
outside  as  a  kind  of  wing  on  each  side,  about  i6  inches  thick,  and 
finally  goes  through  the  roof  as  a  much  smaller  rectangle,  perhaps 
3  feet  by  4  feet,  or  in  the  T- shape  which  we  find  in  the  Arnold 
house. 

Just  above  the  point  at  which  the  stone- work  clears  the  shingles, 
on  the  sides  toward  the  slope  of  the  roof,  a  thin  course  of  stone 
projects  like  a  shelf  about  2  inches  to  prevent  the  rain  from  fol- 
lowing down  the  chimney  into  the  house.  It  serves  instead  of  our 
flashing  of  lead,  a  metal  which  the  colonists  probably  did  not  pos- 
sess in  abundance  for  such  a  use  —  since  bullets  were  current  as 
money. 

Above  this  projection  the  chimney  rises  plain  for  2  feet  or  so, 
when  another  projection  of  about  the  same  size  goes  quite  around 
it.  From  this  string  course  to  the  top,  most  of  the  old  chimneys 
are  ornamented  with  pilasters  (Plate  53),  one  on  the  end  and  two 
on  the  sides,  or  one  on  the  side  and  none  on  the  end.  In  the 
Arthur  Fenner  chimney  (Plate  9)  there  were  three  on  the  side  and 
one  on  the  end.  The  caps  of  these  picturesque  stacks,  which  well 
deserve  modern  imitation,  were  made  of  several  projecting  courses 
of  flat  stone,  which  imitate  fairly  well  the  effect  of  the  mouldings 
of  the  old  English  chimney  (see  Plate  53).  One  chimney  at  least, 
that  of  the  old  Fenner  castle  just  mentioned,  which  was  a  beauti- 
ful stack,  the  best  of  them  all,  had  a  necking  around  it  just  under 
the  cap.     This  adds  immensely  to  the  character  of  the  work  —  as 


72  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

both  necking  and  cap  courses  follow  the  projections  and  recesses 
formed  by  the  pilasters. 

The  oldest  chimneys,  as  in  the  Mowry  house  and  in  the  house 
opposite  the  Smith  Garrison  at  Wickford  on  the  Pequot  path,  are 
plain,  and  as  they  have  lost  their  tops  we  cannot  say  just  how  they 
were  finished  —  probably  by  one  or  more  thin  courses. 

The  brick  chimneys  were  almost  all  finished  with  pilasters, 
like  their  stone  predecessors,  as  in  the  Epenetus  Olney  house, 
(Plate  37),  and  in  the  Smith  house  —  now  the  Gushing  —  in  Wans- 
kuck.  These  are  the  only  brick -end  houses  known  in  Providence 
with  pilastered  chimneys ;  but  such  a  treatment  must  have  been  the 
fashion,  for  the  Tillinghast  house  on  South  Main'  street,  the  house 
at  the  corner  of  South  Main  and  Sovereign  streets,  and  that  num- 
bered 295  on  North  Main  street  —  all  later  than  1730 — have  pilas- 
ters. There  does  not  seem  to  be  a  single  pilastered  brick  chimney 
in  Warwick  or  in  Narragansett,  while  in  Newport  there  are  several 
fine  specimens  —  though  no  house  with  an  outside  brick  chimney 
occurs.  The  Grawford  house  stack  in  Providence,  already  spoken 
of,  is  the  only  one  of  its  kind  —  if,  indeed,  there  were  any  others  — 
which  has  been  preserved.  This  curious  arrangement  (Plate  43)  is 
evidently,  like  the  old  stone  and  brick  pilasters,  a  survival  of  Eng- 
lish traditions. 

On  the  whole  the  old  stone  mason  showed  no  falling  off  in  his 
work  up  to  1700.  The  Olney  house,  as  has  been  said,  will  rank  as 
good  masonry  anywhere.  We  use  the  word  "masonry"  here  in  its 
old  sense  —  for  in  those  times  a  mason  was  a  man  who  built  in 
stone,"  and,  as  the  records  show,  working  in  brick  was  a  separate 

'North  and  South  Main  streets  are  the  old  "  Towne  Street"  of  Providence. 

'^  This  is  still  the  English  sense  of  the  word. 


CONSTRUCTION.  73 

trade,  and  those  who  followed  it  were  called,  not  masons  but  brick- 
layers/ 

Mortar:  —  The  earliest  mortar  of  the  colony  is  what  is  called 
shell  mortar.  Perhaps  the  best  known  specimen  of  masonry  built 
with  this  material  is  the  stone  mill  at  Newport,  built  by  Governor 
Benedict  Arnold  somewhere  about  1670.  This  mortar  is  identical 
with  that  of  the  Bull  house'  and  of  some  other  buildings.  It  is 
composed  of  "pulverized  shells,  clay,  sharp  sand,  and  fine  gravel." 
This  sort  of  cementing  material  was  used  in  the  other  settlements 
of  the  colony  and  seems  to  have  lingered  until  quite  late.  At  the 
Greene  house  at  Buttonwoods  several  lumps  of  it,  quite  hard,  with 
very  large  fragments  of  shell,  and  with  seemingly  strong  traces  of 
clay,  are  shown  as  what  they  no  doubt  are  —  fragments  of  the  orig- 
inal house,  built  probably  about  1687.  The  chimney  of  the  Arthur 
Fenner  house  was  built  with  shell  mortar,  which  also  occurs  on  the 
top  of  the  old  cellar  wall  under  a  sill  which  has  now  disappeared. 

The  whole  subject  of  this  mortar,  however,  is  far  more  intri- 
cate and  puzzling  than  it  might  seem.  Just  what  the  process  of 
mixing  the  ingredients  was,  and  just  how  each  one  acted,  no  one 
seems  to  know.  We  do  know  that  it  was  a  good  hard  mortar, 
and  that  it  resisted  the  weather  splendidly.  Mr.  Uriah  Cummings 
has  discussed  the  subject  in  an  article  in  the  Brickbuilder,  to  which 
we  have  already  referred.  He  seems  to  be  uncertain  as  to  whether 
the  shells  were  burnt  or  not,  and  it  can  be  inferred  from  what  he 
says  that  he  thinks  that  after  the  wet  clay  had  been  added  to  the 
pounded  shells  the  whole  mixture  must  have  been  burnt.     We  are 


^  Early  Records,  Vol.  IV.,   p.  g. 

''J.  P.  MacLean  in  American  Antiquarian,  quoted  by  Uriah  Cummin  s,  Brickbuilder,  July.  1895, 
Vol.  IV.,  p.  151. 

''Cummings,  in  article  quoted  above. 


74  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

sure  that  the  shells  in  the  mortar  of  the  Arthur  Fenner  house 
have  been  calcined.  The  probability  is,  therefore,  that  the  shells 
were  pounded  up,  mixed  with  wet  clay,  rolled  into  balls  and  burnt, 
and  then  either  slaked  in  the  ordinary  way,  as  is  done  in  the 
manufacture  of  hydraulic  lime,'  or  pulverized,  much  in  the  way 
Portland  cement  is  made  of  chalk  and  clay.  The  powder  was 
mixed  with  sand  and  water,  much  as  we  make  cement  mortar. 
The  result  in  either  case  was  a  mortar  with  hydraulic  properties, 
that  is,  a  mortar  which  will,  in  a  greater  or  less  time,  set  under 
water,  and  which  withstood  very  well  the  action  of  the  elements. 

As  this  hydraulic  quality  is  given  to  ordinary,  or  "fat"  lime,  as 
opposed  to  "meager,"  or  naturally  hydraulic  lime,  by  the  addition 
of  pounded  bricks,  forge  scales  or  foundry  slag,  or  even  cinders,  it 
is  possible  that  our  forefathers  burned  the  shells,  pulverized  them, 
and  then  added  the  fragments  to  the  fat  lime  which  they  possessed. 
For  the  Providence  settlers  probably  were  not  long  in  discerning 
the  rich  deposits  of  limestone  which  are  spread  over  the  north- 
eastern part  of  the  State.  We  do  not,  however,  find  any  recorded 
evidence  on  the  subject  till  1661,  when  the  town  voted  to  Thomas 
Hackelton  liberty  to  burn  lime  on  the  common."  Again,  in  1665, 
it  was  ordered  "that  those  Lime  Rockes  about  Hackelton's  lime 
Killne  shal  be  Perpetually  Common."'  The  Scoakequanocsett  re- 
ferred to  as  the  location  of  the  kiln  was  no  doubt  in  the  southern 
border  of  the  village  of  Lime  Rock.  It  can  hardly  have  been  the 
Sockanosset  near  the  Pawtuxet  river,  as  is  claimed,  for  there  is  no 
limestone  there,  so  far  as  we  have  heard  or  seen. 

It   is  of   lime  from  this  ledge    that   the    mortar  in   the   Arnold 

'  Baker,      Treatise  on  Masonry  Construction,  p.   51, 

"^  Early  Records  of  the    Town  of  Providence,  Vol.  IIL,  p.  8. 

^  The  same,  p.  66.     See  also  pp.  22g  and  241. 


CONSTRUCTION. 


75 


house  is  made,  and  some  of  it,  in  the  chimney  in  the  garret,  is 
beautifully  white  and  very  hard.  Just  when  and  how  far  this  lime 
superseded  the  old  shell  mortar  is  a  question  for  further  study. 

II.     The  Frame. 

The  Summer  is  the  beam  which  crosses  the  main  room,  the 
"Fire  Room"  or  "Hall,"  from  the  end -girt  to  the  chimney -girt 
(see  A  in  Plates  4  and  5;  see  also  Plates  7  and  t^j).  The  word 
is  itself  a  relic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  it  is  derived  from  the  Norman 
French  "sommier,"  and  finally  goes  back  to  the  low  Latin  word 
"sagmarius,"  a  pack-horse.  Its  name  is  well  applied,  for  it  does 
carry  half  the  second  floor,  the  other  half  of  course  resting  on  the 
side -girts.  It  is  not  so  deep  by  two  or  three  inches  as  the  girts 
into  which  it  is  framed  (see  A,  Plate  5),  and  is  nearly  12  inches 
square.  Its  edges,  as  well  as  those  of  all  the  exposed  framing,  in 
most  of  the  houses,  are  chamfered  (see  Plates  54,  55,  56,  57,  58). 

The  joists  which  support  the  second  floor  and  the  third  floor, 
are  framed  into  the  summer.  They  are  about  3x4  inches,  set 
with  their  depth  vertical,  as  they  are  now -a -days,  planed  quite 
smooth  and  not  chamfered.  They  are  framed  into  the  large  beam 
in  various  ways.  A  (in  Plate  54)  is  the  method  employed  in  the 
old  Fenner  house,  while  in  Plate  56  is  given  that  used  in  the 
Olney  house.  The  dovetail  is  used  to  form  a  tie,  and  prevent  the 
stick  from  being  pulled  out.  Both  methods  are  very  good.  There 
is  no  case  in  Providence  of  a  summer  in  the  first  story  running 
parallel  with  the  beam  before  the  chimney  which  we  have  called 
the  chimney -girt,'  though  the  arrangement  occurs  in  the  second 
story  in  the  Thomas  Fenner,  the  Arnold,  and  the  Whipple  house. 

'  This  does  occur  in  South  County.  It  is  also  the  rule  in  Salem,  Mass.  In  Connecticut  the 
summer  runs  as  in   Rhode  Island  (see   Plate   i). 


76  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

The  summer  as  in  the  Arthur  Fenner  house,  and  probabl}'^  in 
all  others  in  Providence,  was  framed  into  the  chimney-girt  with  a 
finely  cut  tusk -and -tenon  joint,  the  old  oak  still  showing  the  marks 
of  the  scratch -awl  used  by  the  carpenter  in  marking  out  the  mor- 
tise. This  joint,  now  nearly  abandoned,  was  in  use  till  quite  lately, 
and  is  still  shown  in  old  books  on  framing. 

The  Girts  or  girders  were  framed  between  the  posts  in  the 
outer  walls  and  across  the  end  in  front  of  the  chimney,  at  the 
level  of  the  second  floor,  the  tops  of  the  girts  coming  flush  with 
the  tops  of  the  floor  joists,  which  are  framed  into  those  on  .  the 
side  of  the  building.     See  Plates  7,   17,  and  37. 

The  end  and  chimney-girts  are  generally  about  8  x  16  inches. 
The  side-girts  are  smaller,  generally  about  6  or  7  x  ir  or  12 
inches,  so  that,  as  their  tops  are  in  the  same  level,  they  do  not 
come  so  far  down  into  the  room.  They  are  chamfered  like  the 
summer,  and  are  all  set  edgewise.  In  Plates  57  and  58  is  shown 
the  way  in  which  the  end  and  chimney -girts  at  the  third  floor 
level  are  framed  into  the  posts  which  carry  them.  Plate  57  shows 
the  joint  between  the  post  X  and  the  plate,  and  in  the  same  Plate 
at  L  we  have  the  intermediate  post  L,  marked  G  on  the  plan  of 
the  Olney  house  ( Plate  34,  and  in  the  first  story  on  Plates  35  and 
37),  showing  the  way  the  two  girts  at  the  third  floor  level  were 
carried  on  the  single  post.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  chimney- 
girt  in  the  smaller  room  at  the  side  is  not  so  deep  as  that  in  the 
main  room.'  In  Plate  58,  B  shows  the  same  arrangement  in  the 
Crawford  house.  The  way  the  side -girts  and  the  plates  were 
framed  into  the  posts  is  seen  in  Plates  56  and  57.  The  Plates 
give  cross-references,  so   that   the   Olney  and  the   Crawford   house 

'  In  the  Arnold  house  the  chimney -girt  does  not  exist  over  the  side  fireplace  in  the  first  story. 
Nor  does  it  in  the  Crawford.     It  was  parallel  with  the  joists  over  the  side  rooms,  and  not  needed. 


CONSTRUCTION. 


77 


can  be  compared.  By  each  post  in  one  house  is  given  its  letter 
in  the  other. 

The  Sills  are  generally  8x8,  though  sometimes  much  larger, 
8  X  12,  12  X  13,  in  the  old  Fenner  house.  They  are  laid  on  a  low 
underpinning  of  stone,  where  there  is  no  cellar.  The  posts  are 
framed  into  them  at  the  corners. 

The  Posts  are  sometimes  of  the  same  size  throughout  their 
length,  but  they  often,  in  the  second  story,  and  in  story- and -a -half 
houses  in  the  first,  have  a  projection  to  receive  the  end  and  chim- 
ney-girts, as  is  indicated  in  Plates  57  and  58.  This  is  a  mediaeval 
contrivance,  which  occurs  in  old  French  work.  It  probably  lingered 
long  in  the  colony,  especially  in  barns.  The  habit  of  casing  posts 
drove  it  out  of  use  in  houses  about  the  same  time  that  the  sum- 
mer was  abandoned,   1720, 

The  Plates  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the  framing  of  the 
third  floor,  when  there  is  one,  as  do  the  side -girts  to  that  of  the 
second  floor.  In  addition  to  the  framing  of  the  third  floor,  and 
where  there  is  no  third  floor,  the  plates  perform  their  original 
work  of  carrying  the  roof.  They  are  generally  a  little  less  in  size 
than  the  girts,  and,  like  the  side -girts  at  the  second  floor  level,  are 
smaller  than  the  third  floor  end -girt  or  than  the  third  floor  chim- 
ney-girt, which  in  two  story  houses  spans  the  house  in  front  of 
the  chimney  (see  Plates  17  and  37).  The  plate  in  the  corner 
where  the  stairs  are  placed,  and  that  at  the  other  side  of  the 
chimney  are  smaller. 

The  Rafters  are  generally  4x6  inches,  placed,  in  spite  of 
modern  ideas  as  to  the  wastefulness  of  the  old  carpenters,  with 
their  depth  vertical  as  it  should  be,  and  are  spaced  about  4  feet 
on  centres.  The  Collar  Beams  are  3x4  inches,  and  are  pinned 
into  the  rafters.     In  the  Waterman  house  the  rafters  and  the  collar 


78  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

joists  are  beautifully  planed  and  chamfered.  The  feet  of  the  older 
rafters,  or  "spars,"  are  cut  on  the  plate  in  at  least  three  different 
ways.  In  Plate  59  the  upper  left  hand  drawing  shows  that  in  use 
in  the  Olney  house,  where  though  the  old  roof  has  gone,  the 
notches  on  the  plate,  combined  with  the  arrangement  observed  in 
the  Thomas  Fenner  house,  enable  us  to  restore  the  original  scheme. 
In  the  upper  right  hand  drawing,  in  the  same  Plate,  is  the  arrange- 
ment used  in  the  Field  house.  Immediately  under  these  two  we 
give  the  excellent  scheme  found  in  the  Greene  house,  at  Button- 
woods. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  this  form  of  rafter -foot  gave  no  cor- 
nice such  as  appeared  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century — 
that  is,  such  a  cornice,  or  "jet"  as  carpenters  call  it,  as  we  are  ac- 
customed to  see  on  a  wooden  house.  It  may  be  of  interest  to 
notice  how  this  cornice  was  managed  when  it  was  brought  into  use. 
The  problem  was  to  sustain,  at  a  projection  which  in  the  earliest  ex- 
amples was  about  a  foot  or  something  over,  a  combination  of  thin 
boards  built  up  into  the  shape  of  the  stone  cornice  of  one  or  the 
other  of  the  Classic  Orders.  This  meant  that  the  rafter  itself  must 
overhang  the  plate.  We  get  over  this  difficulty  now -a -days  easily 
enough  by  notching  out  the  rafter  and  nailing  it  to  the  plate  as  in 
the  lower  left  hand  drawing  in  Plate  59.  But  the  old  tradition  of 
rafter- footing  was  too  strong  for  this  ;  everything  must  be  framed. 
Nailing  did  not  occur  to  the  old  workmen  as  a  means  of  holding 
timbers  together.  So  in  the  Phillips  house  at  Wickford  the  cornice 
of  the  new  roof  is  arranged  as  is  shown  in  Plate  59.  The  new 
tie-beams  are  halved  into  the  new  plate  at  the  top  of  the  posts, 
and,  projecting  beyond  it,  carry  the  real  plate,  that  on  which  the 
rafters  are  footed.  Small  struts — exactly  like  those  used  on  Medi- 
aeval roofs  —  are  set  on  the  first  plate  to  divide  the  weight  between 


CONSTRUCTION.  79 

the  two.  Around  the  second,  or  projecting  plate,  the  cornice  was 
built. 

A  later  form  occurs  in  the  Olney  house,  where  the  roof  is  new, 
and  this  also  is  drawn  in  Plate  59.  Square  holes  are  cut  through 
the  plate  at  intervals,  and  in  these  holes  are  inserted  stubs,  which 
carry  the  cornice  built  around  their  ends. 

Boarding  :  —  The  sides  of  the  early  houses  are  all,  save  the 
Waterman  and  Greene  houses,  covered  with  oak  boarding  an  inch, 
or  a  little  over,  in  thickness,  nailed  vertically  from  the  sill  to  the 
plate.  This  style  of  boarding  for  the  sides  of  buildings,  or  at  least 
of  houses,  was  never  abandoned  in  Rhode  Island  in  colonial  times. 
The  stud  system,  in  which  the  space  between  sill  and  girt  and  be- 
tween girt  and  plate  was  filled  with  vertical  studding  on  which  the 
boarding  or  clapboarding  was  nailed  horizontally,  seems  never  to 
have  been  used  in  Providence  except  in  the  gables,'  where  the  con- 
stant employment  of  it  in  the  old  houses  shows  that  it  was  well 
understood.  In  Newport  and  Narragansett  there  are  houses  with 
studs,  though  vertical  boarding  is  used  in  Newport  and  is  the  rule 
in   Narragansett. 

The  roofs  and  gables  are  always  boarded  horizontally  with  oak. 

The  boarding  was  generally  —  though  perhaps  not  always  —  pro- 
tected with  Clapboards  or  Shingles.  The  clapboards  were  often, 
no  doubt,  in  the  earliest  work,  a  foot  wide  or  so,  with  one  edge 
shaved  down  a  little,  put  on  like  the  boards  of  a  clinker-built  boat. 
The   shingles  were  probably  three  feet  long,  and  an  inch  thick  at 


'  Note  that  the  Waterman  and  Greene  houses — see  Chapter  IV — are  exceptions  to  the  statement. 
The  Waterman  clapboards  are  of  the  ordinary  size — about  the  same,  that  is,  as  those  now  in  use — 
(see  Plate  55).  The  inventory  of  Capt.  Arthur  Fenner,  who  died  in  1703,  mentions :  "  Sum  Cedar 
Clabbords  &  shingles"  valued  at  i6s. — Early  Records  of  Providence,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  233. 

In  the  same  volume,  p.  86,  William  Harris'  inventory — 1681 — mentions  "  Clabord  nayles  "  and 
"  board  nailes." 


80  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

the  butt,  though  neither  shingles  nor  clapboards  of  that  date  seem 
to  exist' 

It  is  a  question  of  what  the  original  Floors  were  made.  They 
were  probably  either  of  oak,  tongued  and  grooved,  or  of  white  pine 
like  the  floor  of  the  Thomas  Fenner  house,  which  may  not  be  orig- 
inal, but  which  is  quite  old.  Some  of  its  boards  are  of  astonishing 
width.  The  floor  of  the  garret  in  the  Eleazer  Arnold  house  seems 
to  be  of  oak.  That  of  the  garret  of  the  Greene  house  is  certainly 
oak.     The  under- floor  in  the  Smith  house  at  Wickford  is  of  pine. 

The  Chamfers  with  their  stops,  which  exist  on  all  the  old  tim- 
bers, vary  through  the  forms  given  in  the  drawings  of  the  houses. 
In  Plate  54  we  give  the  group  of  mouldings  on  the  edge  of  the 
fireplace  beam  in  the  Fenner  Castle.  In  the  Cole -Greene  house  in 
Warwick  is  a  very  elaborate  chamfer,  consisting  of  a  cyma  with 
fillets  above  and  below.  The  chamfer  stops  show  a  strong  Mediae- 
val tradition.  In  fact  the  chamfer  itself  is  a  survival  of  the  Middle 
Age,  and  seems  to  have  nothing  in  common  with  classic  ideas. 

The  Windows  were  very  small,  partly  because  of  poverty,  for 
they  did  vary  somewhat  according  to  the  wealth  of  the  owner  and 
the  security  of  the  place  he  had  chosen  for  his  house.  Governor 
Coddington's  house,  for  instance,  had  sash  i  foot  yi  inches  by  2 
feet  3I  inches.  Thomas  Fenner's  sash,  with  which  Coddington's 
may  be  contemporary — though  perhaps  a  good  deal  earlier- — are 
only  13^  X  2oi  inches.'  Almost  all  of  the  sash  were  filled  with 
diamond  panes,  set  in  lead  "  calmes."  The  rectangular  panes  of 
Coddington's  sash  may  have  been  an  uncommon  form,  foreshadow- 
ing the  panes  set  in  wood  of  the  later  time.      So  far  as  we  know 


'  If  Coddington's  sash  are  original  and  the  traditional  date  of  his  house  is  correct,  the  sash  must 
be  one  of  the  oldest  specimens  in  existence. 


CONSTRUCTION. 


81 


this  is  the  only  example  of  its  kind  in  the  colony  which  has  come 
down  to  us.  In  Plate  54  is  shown  the  sash  of  the  Arthur  Fen- 
ner  house,  now  preserved  in  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society.' 
Glass  was  no  doubt  used  very  early. 

Balusters  were  not  used  till  late.  The  stairs  were  protected 
by  a  hand-rail,  with  either  a  second  rail  below  it  as  in  the  Stanton 
house,  Richmond,  or  with  the  space  below  it  filled  in  solid  with  a 
wide  board  as  in  the  Greene  house,  Buttonwoods.  Coddington's 
house  had  balusters,  and  from  their  form  they  could  easily  be  of 
early  date.'  When  balusters  which  we  can  feel  at  all  sure  about 
come  in  —  and  all  those  before  1725  are  in  Newport  and  Narragan- 

sett  —  they  are   shaped   like   a  long  old-fashioned    /    set  vertically, 

and  are  sawed  out  of  thin  stock.  The  early  balusters  in  Provi- 
dence are  sawed  out  in  the  same  way,  but  are  of  the  regular  clas- 
sical baluster  outline.     This  sawed  work  is  found  in   England. 

The  Overhang.  In  Plate  60  is  given  the  detail  of  the  over- 
hang in  the  Sueton  Grant  house.  By  overhang  we  mean  espec- 
ially an  overhanging  second  story,  not  considering  projecting  gables, 
whether  in  one  or  two  story  houses.  The  girt  runs  over  the  top 
of  the  first  story  post,  and  the  end  is  finished  with  a  tenon  which 
goes  into  a  mortise  in  the  lower  end  of  the  second  story  post. 
That  this  was  the  method  of  framing  is  proved  by  the  drawing 
of  the  overhang  in  the  Roger  Williams  house,  in  Salem,  where  the 
drop  has  been  cut  away. 


'A  sash,  filled  with  diamond  panes  set  in  lead,  now  in  the  Pilgrim  Hall  at  Plymouth,  is  i6|^ 
by  22  J^  inches. 

''Two  of  these  are  preserved  —  one  by  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  the  other  by  the 
Historical  Society  at  Newport.  The  date  of  his  house  is  given  as  1642.  It  can  neither  be  verified 
nor  disputed,  as  the  records  are  lost.     The  architectural  evidences  favor  it.     See  Chapter  V. 


82 


EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 


The  Partitions  are  of  matched  and  beaded  boards,  with  mould- 
ings on  the  edges  of  every  other  board  and  bevels  on  the  inter- 
mediates, or  else  bevels  on  both  boards.  They  are  probably  not  to 
be  found  earlier  than  1675.  In  the  Sueton  Grant  and  in  the 
Greene  house  we  have  examples  of  the  first  kind  described.  In 
the  Spencer  house,  East  Greenwich,  and  in  the  Olney  house,  we 
have  the  second  kind. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


RELATION   OF   COLONIAL   ARCHITECTURE   TO   ENGLISH 

WORK. 


UR  forefathers  in  Rhode  Island  were  mostly  tradespeople. 
They  were  carpenters,  masons,  glovers,  surveyors,  tanners, 
printers,  and  so  on,  from  the  cities  or  the  country  towns 
of  England.  A  goodly  proportion  of  them  had  some  knack  at 
preaching,  but  they  were  nearly  all  the  descendants  of  the  Mediae- 
val craftsmen.  And  it  is  just  the  word  "  Mediaeval "  which  marks  the 
character  of  the  traditions  which  our  old  carpenters  and  masons 
held.  They  were  of  the  class  whose  ideas  change  slowly.  They 
had  not  been  greatly  affected  by  the  Renaissance;  of  the  classical 
work  of  Inigo  Jones  they  knew  little  or  nothing,  even  the  earlier 
Elizabethans  like  John  Thorpe  probably  had  not  influenced  them 
much.  They  had  learned  their  trade  of  masters  as  slow  to  change 
as  themselves,  and  these  masters  had  been  trained  in  the  Mediae- 
val fashion. 

The  Mediaeval  architecture  of  England  reached  its  zenith  in  the 
Early  English  work  of  the  thirteenth  century.  It  changed  as  the 
centuries  advanced  until  it  decayed,  died  out,  and  was  finally  en- 
tirely superseded  by  the  Classical  of  the  Renaissance.  This  sup- 
planting of  the  native  Gothic  by  the  style  imported  from  Italy  was 
a  long  process,  and,  as  our  forefathers  left  England  before  it  was 


84  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

finished,  and  had  learned  their  trades,  those  of  them  who  were 
craftsmen,  under  men  imbued  with  what  was  left  of  the  Mediaeval 
spirit,  we  may  be  pardoned  for  examining  the  Gothic  a  little 
closely. 

What  is  called  Perpendicular  Gothic  prevailed  in  England  from 
1399  down  through  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  who  died  in  1546. 
It  was  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  about  1509,  that 
the  foreign,  Italian  work  first  made  its  appearance  in  the  land.  It 
first  obtained  a  foothold  in  church  sepulchral  monuments.  Torre- 
giano,  an  Italian,  finished  in  15  16  the  tomb  of  John  Young,  Master 
of  the  Rolls.  In  15 16  the  same  artist,  who  spoke  of  "those  beasts 
of  English,"  completed  the  altar  tomb  of  Henry  V^II.  and  Elizabeth 
of  York,  in  the  Lady  Chapel  of  Westminster  Abbey.' 

From  monuments  the  new  movement  spread  to  mantels  in 
houses,  and  from  those  and  other  details  it  began  to  affect  the 
houses  themselves.  Gothic  was  slowly  dying,  or  these  inroads 
would  not  have  been  possible.  But,  as  we  have  before  remarked, 
it  died  a  lingering  death.  At  first  the  architects  adopted  what 
they  thought  was  best  in  the  Italian  manner,  and  retained  what 
they  thought  was  best  in  the  Gothic.  Work  on  Mediaeval  lines 
was  still  done  in  churches,  houses  and  colleges,  especially  in  altera- 
tions and  additions,  far  into  the  seventeenth  century.  Even  when 
the  forms  of  the  new  style  gained  ground  it  was  mainly  as  forms 
that  they  did  so.  The  irregularity  and  the  freedom  of  the  Mediae- 
val scheme  of  planning  were  very  slowly  abandoned,  and  the 
Mediaeval  methods  of  work  must  have  persisted  with  them.  It 
seems  to  have  been  nearly  the  same  in  France.  Renaissance  work 
is,  in  the  beginning  of  the  Revival,  grafted  upon  Gothic  forms,  and 

'  Better  known  as  Henry  the  Seventh's  Chapel.      W,  J.  Loftie,  Inigo  Jones  and  Wren. 


RELATION    OF    COLONIAL    ARCHITECTURE   TO    ENGLISH    WORK.  85 

supplants  them  only  gradually.  The  details  change  first,  the  plan 
and  elevation  next,  the  method  of  work  probably  last  of  all.  For 
the  new  style  was  essentially  aristocratic,  it  appealed  to  men  of 
culture  and  refinement,  as  those  words  are  now  artificially  under- 
stood. It  was  with  the  Renaissance  that  the  architect  began  to 
draw  away  from  the  craftsman.  He  led  the  way  into  the  new  style 
and  the  workman  followed  him,  losing  his  individuality  along  with 
his  old  fashioned  notions  about  building. 

In  some  parts  of  England  Gothic  lingered  longer  than  in  others. 
One  of  these  was  Oxford,  where  Inigo  Jones  built  for  Archbishop 
Laud  the  garden  front  of  St.  John's  College,  which,  in  form,  is 
still  a  good  design.  The  Chapel  of  University  College  was  conse- 
crated in  1665;  it  much  resembles  the  staircase  and  entrance  gate- 
way of  Christ's  College,  built  possibly  by  Jones,  in    [640. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  Bath  Abbey,  which  was  finished  with- 
out change  of  style  in  16 16,  Gothic  persisted  strongly.  It  was 
possibly  the  character  of  the  building  stone  of  this  part  of  Eng- 
land, Wiltshire,'  which  helped  perpetuate  the  old  fashion.  At  any 
rate  there  are  several  examples  here  which  have  the  Mediaeval 
spirit,  though  built  very  late.  At  Corsham  is  a  beautiful  little 
almshouse  with  a  mixture  of  square  and  round  headed  windows, 
and  with   Mediaeval  gables  and  chimney,  which  was  built   in   1668.' 

Most  if  not  all  old  English  houses  not  built  of  stone,  both  in 
the  cities  and  in  the  country,  were  of  what  is  called  "half-tim- 
bered" work.  This  is  familiar  to  almost  all  from  the  pictures  of 
old  English  or  Continental  streets,  for  this  manner  of  building  was 
especially  common  in  cities  all  over  northern  Europe.     The  quaint 


'  William   Carpenter,  one  of   the  old  carpenters  of   Providence    came  from  Amesbury,  in  Wilt- 
shire. 

'  W.  J.   Loftie,  Inigo  Jones  and   Wren. 


86  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

fronts  with  their  overhanging  stories,  latticed  windows  and  carved 
beams,  their  framing  showing  in  dark  contrast  to  the  white  plaster 
of  their  panelling,  which  was  often  marked  with  curious  patterns, 
are  known  far  and  wide  through  the  drawings  of  Herbert  Railton 
and  the  sketches  of  many  an  artist  in  the  old  countries.' 

These  houses  were  constructed  with  posts  and  studs,  the  space 
between  which  was  filled  in  two  ways.  According  to  one  fashion, 
called  "wattle  and  daub,"  laths  were  nailed  on  strips  between  the 
studs.  These  laths  were  covered  on  both  sides  with  clay  mixed 
with  chopped  straw,  and  the  wall  thus  formed,  about  five  inches 
thick,  was  finished  on  both  sides  with  plaster.  The  old  English 
plasterers  had  ways  of  working  their  material  so  that  it  withstood 
water.  According  to  the  other  way,  the  space  between  the  studs 
was  filled  with  bricks,  and  plaster  was  applied  to  these. 

Now  the  original  colonial  houses  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  Con- 
necticut, and,  to  some  extent,  in  Rhode  Island,  were  many  of  them, 
if  not  all,  lined  with  brick  between  the  studs  of  their  outer  walls, 
as  has  been  already  stated,  and,  further,  the  clapboards  are,  in 
many  cases  at  least,  nailed  to  the  studs  over  the  brick,  without 
any  boarding.  What  does  this  mean?  It  means  one  of  two  things. 
Either  this  is  a  custom  brought  from  the  old  country,  and  it  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  very  common  there,  or  it  originated  here 
under  the  following  circumstances.  The  original  builders  proposed 
to  use  the  old  English  half-timbered  construction  with  which  they 
were  familiar.  They  used  either  the  "wattle  and  daub"  or  the 
brick  filling  between   the  studs   of  their  houses.     To  this  day  can 


'  The  illustration  to  Besant's  London,  and  other  such  books  or  magazine  articles,  are  excellent 
sources  of  information  on  this  Old  English  domestic  work.  Railton's  drawings,  many  of  them  are 
in  Coaching  Days  and  Coaching  Ways.  Rimmer's  Ancient  Streets  and  Homesteads  of  England  is 
very  good. 


RELATION   OF   COLONIAL    ARCHITECTURE   TO   ENGLISH   WORK.  87 

be  seen,  in  the  garret  of  the  Roger  WilHams  house  in  Salem, 
what  seems  to  be  the  top  of  the  clay  and  chopped  straw  filling  of 
the  ancient  outer  wall  on  the  rear  of  the  house.  The  outer  sur- 
face of  the  brick  or  clay  wall  of  our  forefathers,  whether  that  in 
the  Williams  house  belongs  to  that  primitive  time  or  not,  was 
plastered  between  the  studs,  which  were  left  exposed. 

A  few  New  England  summers  and  winters  brought  about  un- 
looked-for results.  The  upright  studs  shrunk  sidewise  under  the 
fierce  sun,  and  left  along  their  whole  height  cracks  through  which 
the  searching  winds  of  the  old-fashioned  winter  carried  their 
streams  of  snow.  The  remedy  was  found  in  a  sheathing  of  feather- 
edged  boards  overlapping  each  other,  and  hence  we  see  the  clap- 
boards nailed  directly  to  the  studs.  This  system  lingered  nearly 
a  hundred  years,  whatever  may  be  the  truth  of  this  theory  as  to 
its  origin.' 

In  the  old  territory  of  the  Providence  Plantations,  however, 
this  system,  as  we  have  often  said,  did  not  prevail  in  early  times. 
The  Providence  house,  and  a  great  number — perhaps  the  greater 
number  —  of  the  ancient  houses  in  the  other  settlements  of  the 
State  are  boarded  vertically.  Now  this  system  is  not  very  com- 
mon in  the  old  houses  in  the  other  colonies.  It  occurs  in  the 
Cobbett  house  in  Ipswich  and  in  some  others,'  but  these  cases 
seem  to  be  exceptions,  as  the  Waterman  house  is  in  Providence. 
Whence  came  this  totally  different  system  ?  Why  was  it  used  ? 
The  first  question  can  be  positively  answered  only  after  much  ex- 


'  Some  time  ago  Mr.  E.  R.  Willson,  Architect,  of  Providence,  a  native  of  Salem,  suggested  to 
us  that  the  old  houses  of  that  city  were  half-timbered,  and  were  built  with  the  bays  (many-casement 
windows)  used  in  Elizabethan  houses  in  England,  and  that  the  climate  compelled  the  settlers  to 
abandon  these  in  favor  of  the  smaller  sash. 

^Br.   I.   W.   Lyon. 


88  EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 

ploration  in  England  and  on  the  Continent.  It  may  be  English 
imported  by  William  Carpenter ;  it  may  be  Dutch  imported  by 
John  Clawson.  To  the  second  question  we  are  inclined  to  answer 
—  because  of  its  cheapness.  It  required  no  studs.  A  building  with 
posts  at  its  corners  only  cannot  —  if  its  dimensions  be  even  twelve 
feet  either  way  —  be  boarded  horizontally  with  so  good  results  as 
those  attained  if  it  be  boarded  vertically,  for  the  distance  from  sill 
to  plate  is  never  more  than  seven  and  a  half  feet  at  the  most  — 
seldom  so  much. 

Economy  had  to  be  carefully  studied  in  early  Providence  ;  and 
the  pioneers  —  after  finding,  before  they  left  Massachusetts,  that 
brick  filling  required  a  covering  of  horizontal  boards  —  did  away, 
first  with  the  bricks  and  then  with  the  studs  which  carried  these 
horizontal  boards,  and  which  filled  in  the  space  between  the  posts. 
Really  the  posts  and  girts  were  amply  strong  without  the  studs  ; 
and  the  result  has  justified  the  calculations  of  the  framers,  except 
that  possibly  the  houses  in  Providence  show  more  sagging,  twist- 
ing and  other  deformation  than  do  their  contemporaries  in  the 
other  colonies,  for  the  studs  and  the  horizontal  boarding  certainly 
would  help  to  stiffen  the  frame. 

It  will  thus  be  clear  how  closely  our  ancestors  clung  to  the 
traditions  of  their  trades  as  they  were  practiced  in  the  England  of 
their  time,  and  it  will  be  clear,  too,  that  our  claim  that  these  tra- 
ditions are  in  their  case  strongly  Mediaeval  is  well  sustained  by  the 
examples.  These  men  were  good  workmen,  economical  in  most 
cases,  skilful  in  handling  their  material,  though  we  are  too  apt  to 
consider  them  wasteful  and  clumsy.  They  were  artistic,  too,  for 
they  solved  the  problem  before  them  in  the  simplest  manner,  with 
logical  use  of  the  material  which  they  had  at  hand,  and  with  good 
arrangement  of  line  and  mass.     Some  of  the  quaintness  and  charm 


RELATION   OF   COLONIAL   ARCHITECTURE   TO   ENGLISH   WORK.  89 

which  belong  to  their  work  is  of  course  the  effect  of  the  grouping 
of  later  additions  and  of  what  someone  has  called  the  reclaiming 
touch  of  nature,  softening  hard  lines  and  giving  undulation  and 
ease  to  surfaces  which  must  at  first  have  been  much  nearer  geo- 
metrical planes  —  but  not  much  nearer,  for  from  the  scanty  means 
they  had  for  handling  heavy  timber,  from  their  rough  methods  of 
"  raising "  a  house,  where  the  whole  side  was  put  together  on  the 
ground  and  pushed  up  or  "  raised  "  into  place  by  the  combined  ef- 
forts of  many  men  and  considerable  rum,  there  must  have  been  a 
certain  ease  in  the  lines  of  the  building.  Then  their  pilastered 
chimney-caps,  with  moulded  tops  and  irregular  sky-line,  their  sharp- 
pitched  roofs,  small  latticed  windows  and  large  wall  surfaces,  must 
have  had  a  pleasant  effect  even  when  the  work  was  new.  They 
were  simple  ;  and  simplicity,  as  we  are  just  beginning  to  see,  is 
the  cardinal  virtue  in  architecture.  Inside  the  house  the  "sanded 
floor,  the  blackened  fireplace  with  its  volume  of  roaring  and  writh- 
ing fire,  the  summer  and  the  joists,  the  posts  and  girts  all  frankly 
shown,  all  beautifully  planed  and  chamfered  with  all  the  care  the 
ancient  craftsmen  could  bestow,  must  have  had  a  fine  effect.  They 
impress  us  now,  when  whitewash  and  plaster  and  new  fireplaces, 
fire -boards  and  modern  stoves,  carpets  and  wall  paper,  have  done 
their  best  to  destroy  the  ancient  scheme ;  but  in  the  old  days,  when 
the  original  color  of  the  oak,  contrasted  with  the  pine  flooring 
above,  the  white  sand  below,  and  the  gray  stone  of  the  fireplace 
the  effect  must  have  been  artistic  and  extremely  effective  ;  —  none 
the  less  so  because  it  arose  from  a  frank  and  simple  meeting  of 
the  wants  of  those  for  whom  the  house  was  built. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


A  LIST  OF  OLD  RHODE  ISLAND  HOUSES. 

The  First  Period. 

The  Henry  Bull  House. 

Newport,  Spring  street.  Almost  wholly  of  stone.  Much 
altered.     Traditional  date,   1638.     See  Chapter  V. 

The  Roger  Mowry  House. 

Providence,  Abbott  street.     Date  c.  1653.     See  Chapter  H. 

The  Arthur  Fenner  House. 

Destroyed  1886.  Cranston,  near  Thornton.  Date,  1655. 
See  Chapter  O. 

The  Palmer  Northup  House. 

Wickford,  west  side  of  Post  Road,  opposite  Smith  "Garri- 
son." Much  added  to.  Date  c.  1 640-50 (?).  See  Chapter 
VI. 

The  Sueton  Grant  House. 

Newport,  Hammett's  court.     Date  c.    1670.     See  Chapter  V. 


list  of  old  rhode  island  houses.  91 

The  Second  Period. 

The  Thomas  Fenner  House. 

Cranston,  not  quite  a  mile  beyond  Thornton.  In  excellent 
preservation.  Stone  chimney  with  brick  top.  Date,  1677. 
See  Chapter  III. 

The  Greene  House. 

Now  the  property  of  Edward  A.  Cole.  Warwick,  on  River 
road,  opposite  Cole  station.  Stone  chimney  gone.  Old 
framing  still  intact  in  first  story.  Date,  i676(.?).  It  may 
be  older. 

The  Eleazer  Whipple  House. 

Lime  Rock.  End  chimney  of  stone,  with  brick  above  third 
floor.     Date  c.   1677.     See  Chapter  III. 

The  Richard  Smith  House. 

Cocumscussuc,  about  a  mile  north  of  Wickford,  on  Pequot 
path.     Date  c.   1678-80.     See  Chapter  VI. 

The  Edward  Manton  House. 

Manton,  north  of  old  Killingly  road.  Date  c.  1680,  or  earlier. 
Stone  chimney  retains  its  pilastered  top.  See  Chapter 
III. 

The  John  Mowry,  Jr.  (.?)or  Sayles  House. 

North  Smithfield,  on  Wesquadomeset  or  Sayles  Hill.  Date 
unknown,  possibly   1680-90. 


92  early  rhode  island  houses. 

The  Eleazer  Arnold  House. 

Near  Butterfly  Factory,  about  a  mile  west  of  Lonsdale. 
Stone  chimney  retains  its  pilastered  top.  Date  c.  1687. 
See  Chapter  III. 

The  Benjamin  Smith  House. 

Now  known  as  the  Cook  house.  Half  a  mile  north  of 
Arnold  house.  Pilastered  stone  chimney  at  end.  May 
have  had  a  lean-to  originally,  but  has  none  now.  Date 
unknown;  probably   1687. 

Samuel  Gorton,  Jr.,  House. 

Better  known  as  the  Greene  house.  East  Greenwich.  Stone 
chimney  with  pilastered  top.  Date  c,  1687.  East  end  of 
house  not  so  old  as  west  end (.''). 

The  John  (.'^)  Greene  House. 

Warwick.  Occupassuatuxet,  now  Spring  Green.  Residence 
of  late  Governor  Francis.     Date,   i69o(.?). 

The  Thomas  Field  House. 

Providence,  near  Sassafras  and  Field's  Points.  Date  c.  1694. 
See  Chapter  HI. 

The  House. 

Newport,  Marlborough  street,  corner  of  Duke.  End -chim- 
ney of  stone,  topped  out  with  brick.  Date  c.  i69o(.'*). 
See  Chapter  V. 


LIST    OF    OLD    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 


93 


The  Valentine  Whitman,  Jr.,  House. 

Lime  Rock,  half  a  mile  north  of  the  village.  Stone  chim- 
ney with  brick  top  at  end  of  house.  Plan  like  Arnold 
house,  but  two -story.     Date,  probably   1694. 

The  Angell  House. 

Lincoln.  On  road  from  Wanskuck,  near  Wenscot  reservoir. 
Cellar  and  part  of  chimney  remain.  Plan  like  that  of 
Arnold  or  of  Whitman  house.     Date  c.   1685-95. 

The  Congdon  House. 

Now  known  as  the  Watson  house.  South  Kingstown.  On 
Post  Road,  below  Wakefield.  Date,  1690-1 700 (.'').  See 
Chapter  VI.  * 

The  Third  Period. 

The  Epenetus  Olney  House. 

"Sakesakut,"  between  Allendale  and  Lymansville.  Date  c. 
1700-5.     See  Chapter  IV. 

The  Benjamin  Waterman   House. 

Johnston,  between  Hughesdale  and  the  Hartford  Pike.  Date 
c.   1700.     See  Chapter  IV. 

The  Phillips   House. 

Belleville,  near  Wickford.  On  Post  Road  or  Pequot  path. 
Date  c.  1700.     See  Chapter  VI. 


94  early  rhode  island  houses. 

The  Cory  House. 

North  Kingstown,  Quidnesett.  On  road  from  Davisville  to 
State   Military  Camp.     Stone  chimney.     Date  c.  1700-10. 

The  Richard  Searle  House. 

Oaklawn.  On  Main  street.  End -chimney  of  stone,  topped 
out  with  brick.     Date  c.   1700-10. 

The  John  Crawford  House.' 

Providence,  North  Main  street,  corner  of  Mill  street.  Date, 
1 715.     See  Chapter  IV. 

The  Joseph  Smith  House. 

Now  known  as  Cushing  house.  Providence,  Wanskuck,  on 
Admiral  street.  Pilastered  brick  chimney  at  end  of  house. 
Date  c.  1 715. 

The  Lippitt  House. 

Old  Warwick,  near  church.  Brick  chimney  at  end.  Date 
c.   1715. 

The  Almy  House. 

Johnston,  on  the  Hartford  Pike,  about  a  mile  east  of  Pocas- 
set.  Brick  chimney  at  end  of  house,  but  boarded  over. 
Date  ^.1718. 


'  Later  evidence  secured  by  Mr.  ^^ield  makes  this  house  belong  to  Zachariah  Jones,  from  whom 
Crawford  bought  it,  and  puts  its  date  back  to  c.  1710. 


list  of  old  rhode  island  houses.  96 

The  James  (Fones)   Greene  House. 

Warwick,  Buttonwoods,  at  head  of  Brush  Neck  Cove.  Date 
c.   1 71 5.     See  Chapter  IV. 

The  Othniel  Gorton  House. 

Over  a  mile  west  of  Oak  Lawn.  Only  chimney  and  part  of 
cellar  remain.     Date  unknown;   probably   1710-20. 

The  King  House. 

On  road  to  Oak  Lawn,  east  of  Sockanosset  Hill.  Stone 
chimney  with  brick  top.  Summer  was  still  to  be  seen 
in   1895,  near  house.     Date  c.   1718. 

The  Spencer  House. 

East  Greenwich.  Three  miles  southwest  of  villasre.  Stone 
chimney  with  brick  top  in  centre  of  house.     Date  c.  1715. 

The  Coggeshall  House. 

East  Greenwich.  On  Pequot  path  or  Post  Road,  a  mile  and 
a  half  below  the  village.     Date  c.  1715.     See  Chapter  VL 

The  Payne  House, 

East  Greenwich.  A  mile  or  more  northwest  from  Cogges- 
hall house,  and  two  miles  northeast  from  Spencer  house. 
Date  c.  1 715.     See  Chapter  VL 

The  Stanton  House. 

Richmond.  Southeast  corner  of  town,  on  road  from  West 
Kingston  to  Shannock.  Date,  1715-20  (.?).  See  Chap- 
ter VL 


96  '      early  rhode  island  houses. 

The  General  Stanton  House. 

Charlestown.  Post  Road  near  South  Kingstown  line.  Date 
1715-20  (?).     See  Chapter  VI. 

The  Robert  Hazard  House. 

Charlestown.  Post  Road  near  ChampHn  Farm  and  road  to 
Watchaug  Pond.     Date   171 5  (.?).     See  Chapter  VI. 

The  Welcome  Hoxsie  House. 

Charlestown.  Post  Road  or  Pequot  path,  a  short  distance 
west  of  General  Stanton  house.     See  Chapter  VI. 

The  Church  House. 

South  Kingstown.  On  road  to  Matunuc  from  Charlestown, 
below  Post  Road,  south  of  Perry ville.  Date  171 5-20  (.?). 
See  Chapter  VI. 

The  Wanton  House. 

Newport,  West  Broadway.  Date  c.  1715-20  (.?).  See  Chap- 
ter V. 

The  and  Houses. 

Newport,   Duke  street.      Date  c.  1720  (.?).      See  Chapter  V. 

The  Spencer  House. 

Newport,  Thames  street,  north  of  Marlborough  street.  Date 
c.   1715-20.     See  Chapter  V. 


list  of  old  rhode  island  houses.  97 

The  House. 

Newport,  Marlborough  street,  corner  of  Branch  and  Farewell. 
Date  c.   1715-20.     See  Chapter  V. 

The  Benedict  Arnold  (?)   House. 

Newport,  Hammett's  wharf.     Date  c.  i720-3o(,?).     See  Chap- 
ter V. 

The  Arnold  House. 

Quinsnicket   Hill,  near   Butterfly  Factory.      House   in   ruins. 
No  summer  in  second  story.      Date  c.   1720-5. 


NDEX   OF   NAMES  AND  PLACES 


Almy,  94 

Amesbury,  85 

Allendale,  46,  48,  93 

Angell,  93 

Apponaug,  61 

Aquidneck,  64 

Arnold,  Benedict  (?),  60,  97 

Arnold,  Gov.  Benedict,   72 

Arnold,  Eleazer,  41,  92 

Arnold,   ,  97 

Atherton  Purchase,   12 

Beers,  Benjamin,  39 

Belleville,  61,  65,  93 

Boston,   14,  45 

Brush  Neck  Cove,  53,  95 

Bull,  Gov.  Henry,  56,  90 

Butterfly  Factory,  41,  92,  97 

Buttonwoods,  45,  51,  53,  73,  78,  95 

Carpenter,  William,   25,  26,  85,  88 
Chambers,  Sir  William,   15 
Champlin  Farm,  65,  95 
Charlestown,  96 
Church,  65,  96 
Clawson,  John,    14,  88 
Cocumscussuc,  61,  62,  91 
Coggeshall,  66,  95 
Cole,  E.  A.,  91 


Conanicut  Island,  56,  59 

Congdon,  65,  93 

Connecticut,  11,  13,55,59,64,65,  75,86 

Cook,  92 

Corsham,   85 

Cory,  94 

Coventry,  61 

Cranston,  24,  91 

Crawford,  Gideon,  51 

Crawford,  John,  51,  94 

Cushing,   72,  94 

Davisville,  9<j. 

England,   13,  83,  84,  88 

Fenner,  Arthur,   24,  25,  26,  28,  31,  79, 

90 
Fenner,  Thomas,  31,  47,  91 
Field,  Thomas,  37,  92 
Field,  William,  37 
Field's  Point,  92 
Fones  Purchase,   i  2 
Francis,  Gov.,  92 

Gorton,  Othniel,  95 
Gorton,  Samuel,   11,  12 
Gorton,  Samuel,  Jr.,  92 
Grant,  Sueton,  58,  64,  81,  82,  90 


INDEX    OF    NAMES    AND    PLACES. 


99 


Greene,  91 

Greene,  92 

Greene,  John,   12 

Greene,  John,  92 

Greene,  James,  53,  95 

Greene,  Fones,  53,  95 

Greenwich,  East,  61,  66,  82,  93,  95 

Hackelton,  Thomas,  74 

Harris,  William,    12,  31,  79 

Hartford,   13 

Hartford  Pike,  49,  93,  94 

Hazard,  Robert,  65,  96 

Holland,   13 

Hopkinton,   12 

Hoxsie,  Welcome,  65,  96 

Hughesdale,  49,  93 

Ipswich,  87 

Johnston,  49,  93,  94 
Jones,  Inigo,  83,  85 
Jones,  Zachariah,  94 
Joy,  "  Sam,"  31 

Killingly  Road,  91 

King,  95 

King's  Province,  11  (see  South  County) 

Kingston,  West,  66,  95 

Kingstown,  North,  94 

Kingstown,  South,  93,  96 

Lime  Rock,  40,  74,  91,  93 
Lincoln,  93 
Lippitt,  94 
Lonsdale,  41,  92 


Louisquisset,  40 
Lymansville,  46,  93 

Manton,  91 

Manton,  Edward,  35,  91 

Manton,   Shadrach,  35 

Massachusetts,  11,  20,  59,  65,  86,  88 

Matunuc,  65,  96 

Moshassuck,  65 

Moshassuck  River,  41 

Mowry,  "  Ben,"  40 

Mo  wry,  John,  Jr.,  91 

Mowry,  Roger,  21,  22,  90 

Narragansett,  61,  64,  66,  72,  79 

Narragansett  Bay,   12 

Narragansett  Trail,  61 

Nayatt,  45 

New  Amsterdam,   14 

New  England,   11 

Newport,  11,  54,  55,  62,  66,  72,  73,  79, 

92,  96,  97 
Neutaconkanut  Hill,  24,  49 
North  Road,  41 
Northup,  Palmer,  64,  66,  90 

Oak  Lawn,  94,  95 
Occupasnetuxet,    12 
Occupassuatuxet,  same  as  above,  92 
Ocquockamaug  Brook,  31 
Olney,  Epenetus,  Sr.,  45 
Olney,  Epenetus,  Jr.,  46,  93 
Olney,  Thomas,  Sr.,  69 

Patience  Island,    12 
Payne,  66,  95 


100 


EARLY    RHODE    ISLAND    HOUSES. 


Pawtuxet,   1 2 

Pawtuxet  River,  74 

Pequot  Path,  61,  72,  91,  93,  96 

Perryville,  65,  96 

Pettaquamscutt  Purchase,   12 

Phillips,  Michael,  65,  93 

Plymouth,   14,  20 

Pocasset,  94 

Pocasset  Valley,  24,  49 

Pontiac,  61 

Post  Road,  61,  64,  65,  66,  93,  95 

Prudence  Island,   12 

Quidnesett,  94 

Richmond,   12,  66,  81,  95 

Salem,  13,  16,  75,  87 

Sakesakut,  93 

Sassafras  Point,  37,  92 

Sayles,  48,  91 

Sayles  Hill,  48,  91 

Scoakequanocsett,  74 

Searle,  Richard,  94 

Secessacutt,  35 

Shannock,  66,  67,  95 

Shawomet,   1 1 

Smith,  Benjamin,  92 

Smith,  John,  the  Mason,  47 

Smith,  Joseph,  72,  94 

Smith,   Richard,  Sr.,   12,61,64 

Smith,  Richard,  Jr.,  62,  63,  64,  91 

Smithfield,  North,  91 

Sockanosset,  74 

Sockanosset  Hill,  95 

South  County,  11,  13,  46,  54,61,65,  75 


Spencer,  82,  95 

Spencer,  Newport,  60,  96,  97 

Spring  Green,   12,  92 

Stanton,  66^  95 

Stanton,  Gen.,  65,  96 

Stanton  Purchase,  66 

Taunton,  45,  62 
Thornton,   24,  91 
Thorpe.  John,  83 
Torregiano,  84 
Towne  Street,   20,  24,  51 

Unthank,  Christopher,   14 

Wakefield,  65,  93 

Wanskuck,  72,  93.  94 

Wanton,  60,  96 

Warwick,  54,  59,  72,  91,  92,  94,  95 

Watchaug  Pond,  96 

Waterman,  Benjamin,  49,  93 

Waterman,   "  Nick,"  49 

Watson,  65,  93 

Waybausset  Hill,  46 

Wenscot  Reservoir,  93 

Wesquadomeset  Hill,  48,  91 

Westerly,  12,  61,  66 

Whipple,  Eleazer,  40,  ^\ 

White,  William,  45 

Whitman,  Valentine,  Jr.,   13,  93 

Wickford,   12,  13,  61,  66,  78,  91,  93 

Williams,  Roger,   11,  12,  15,  21,  87 

Wiltshire,  85 

Winthrop,  Gov.,   12 

Woonasquatucket  River,  35,  46 


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